The Final Horseman
by Hitomi Zotz
Summary: Someone is planning on summoning the four horsemen to bring about the Apocalypse and usher in the Ogdru Jahad. HB and the others must stop them. Myers has just been united with his sister who can speak with the dead, can she help them? Can she bring closure to HB over the death of Bruttenholm and help Clay with his brush with death? What about HB's destiny as the destroyer of earth
1. Prologue- An Unexpected Return

_He could hear the soft lull of the black waters caressing the grey sand gently, it's a deceptively soothing sound for in a moment the sand will be gone, drowned for the evening in high tide. He looked ahead, up from the monochrome beach to the old building atop the cliff. It should be abandoned, it looks derelict favouring the Dutch Colonial style, it could even be from that era, he's unsure._

 _He tensed seeing a figure at the window, a pale palm pressed against the smoky glass, it's almost a cliché. He tried to stumble up to it but suddenly his feet felt weighed down. He looked down to see the tide's come quicker than anticipated and he's already knee deep in salt water only it's thick and black like oil._

 _Eyes up again and the window is right in front of him and it's like he's peering through a tank at a strange exhibit. A young woman is glaring back at him, violet-blue eyes fierce and accusing. The water's at his chin now and she's clutching her head with both hands, screaming and twitching as bolts of electricity seem to dance around her skull. He's drowning now while her brain is frying._

John Myers awoke with a gasp for air that almost sounded like a scream, almost. Disoriented, he sat upright for a moment, just staring blankly ahead as he reached his right hand up to wipe some of the sweat from his brow. He sucked in a deep breath and turned to the right, glimpsing the green digital numbers on his clock- 04:15. He swallowed down a curse, it was too early to just get up but he knew he couldn't get back to sleep. He shook his head as if his nightmare was something to be physically dislodged before he pushed his crumpled duvet back and swung his legs round. He winced as his bare feet hit the cold, wooden floor before he stood up.

He could hear the traffic humming from outside and felt a small hint of pleasure in the knowledge that other people were awake at this unnatural hour. He moved to his window, parting the thin, yellowing curtains to peer out the cold, thin pane. The sky was brown, tainted with smog and light pollution, and below the roads gleamed slick with damp like oil. John withdrew from the window with a shudder as it conjured his nightmare all too quickly. A sea that had turned to oil and tried to drown him, he shook his head once more in an attempt to banish the image.

He rubbed at the sleep in the corners of his eyes with one hand before crossing the small room with a few heavy, laborious steps, his feet refusing to adjust to the coldness of the floor. His apartment was basic, it was close to his place of work, it offered him shelter, the rent was decent and no one bothered him here. In fact no one visited him here at all, not even a single co-worker. John frowned at that thought as he finally dropped his hand from the corners of his bloodshot blue eyes and reached for the door handle.

His work phone rang then, offering a welcome distraction. At the shrill ringtone he moved hastily back to his bedside, snatching the black mobile up from the wooden cabinet at his bed. He glanced at the number briefly, withheld, and flipped open the phone. "Agent Myers," he greeted calmly.

"Myers you got work to do," the steely voice of Agent Marble greeted him bluntly.

"Where?" Myers queried calmly.

"Outskirts of town, the recently closed Hotel Briarmarsh, some company was hosting a private function there and things have gotten weird."

"How weird?" Myers retorted as he balanced his phone with his chin and shoulder whilst moving to his underwear drawer.

"Well it isn't your regular Wednesday morning put it that way," came the dry retort. "Just get your shit in gear and meet us there in thirty minutes, I'll be bringing the guys."

"Both of them?" Myers queried in surprise.

"Blue and Red, Manning's orders," Marble replied brusquely. "See you there." He hung up the phone leaving Myers to wonder at the gravity of the situation if it required two of the Bureau's best agents.

John hastened to dress in a plain but practical suit, taking care to check that his Heckler and Koch USP Compact was fully loaded. Satisfied with his gun, though he was beginning to think that in most situations it was as useful as a limp fish, he finally headed out of his apartment.

John followed his SAT Nav's directions with little difficulty. As it was early in the morning though there was traffic it was light and there was no rain, just a few puddles. When he left the city things became a little trickier as the roads were less travelled and his tyres squealed over a few mud traps and concealed rocks whilst his SAT Nav ordered him down non-existent turns and into dead ends. After several curses he finally reached the hotel, albeit he was ten minutes later than agreed.

The hotel sat off the main road and up a long and winding road, sitting amongst long, wild grass and trees now bare as autumn began to drift into winter, looking black and dead in the darkness. The building itself was even less appealing- grand and gothic, following the popular Gothic Revial style, it was every horror seeker's wet dream. The former hotel was four floors tall with finials at its roof, lancet windows on the ground floor and tall, iron gates to guard its entry with stone walls on either side, now half-crumbled with ivy crawling through them. The gates were open and as John drove up to the property he could see the oddly placed Waste Management truck at its entrance along with several other cars. Two large, stone pots stood at either side of the steps leading up to the grand, wooden and glass doors, though their flowers had died long ago leaving only straggly weeds sagging in the soil.

John stepped out of his car, locked it and hastened up the steps to the wooden doors, pressing down the handle of the right one hastily and pushing it in. He half-expected it to give an ominous creak and was a little disappointed when it didn't. As he entered the gloomy lobby he felt a prickle of unease rush through him as the temperature plummeted and he found his breath misting before him.

He tugged out his H&K gun hastily, holding it up slightly as he clicked the safety off and scanned the area. He made out a faint trace of light beneath a door to the left and hurried that way. He paused when he reached it, feeling the hairs at the back of his neck stand up as he heard oddly muffled voices coming from behind the door. He leaned against it slightly trying to make them out but it was difficult.

"Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there."

John felt his chest tighten slightly at the female voice he heard faintly chanting through the door. He knew those words; he had heard them before a long time ago, murmured over and over by a young, half-mad girl. It was a poem, not a popular one he thought, but one that almost seemed sinister. There was a creak from behind him and he found himself turning slowly as the voice continued.

"He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd go away."

John's warm blue eyes widened in a moment of horror as they spied the silhouette of something standing on the wide staircase near the bottom, perfectly still as if a statue. If it were not right in the middle of the staircase and its clothes seem to ripple in a wind John couldn't feel he might have even thought it an odd decoration.

"When I came home last night at three," the disembodied voice continued from behind the door, still soft, almost like a whisper. As it spoke John saw the form move as if it too could hear the voice, it seemed to turn its head slowly as if seeking out the source of the poem.

John felt his blood run cold as he knew suddenly that he did not want to see the thing's face. "The man was waiting there for me."

A withered, grey face looked upon John with reddish eyes sunken in it as if the skin were rubber. Its black lips parted and a loud, wild shriek erupted from it before it moved. It seemed to come through the banisters, arms outstretched and reaching for him with long, yellowing claws attached to rotted, skeletal hands.

BANG! BANG! John didn't think he just reacted.

The door behind the agent opened up suddenly, spilling golden light into the lobby before a strong, heavy hand grasped at his right shoulder and pulled him back. As he was pulled John let out a betraying scream of alarm.

"Damn Myers you're a natural at subtle entrances," he heard a familiar voice tease.

John relaxed only slightly, his blue eyes remaining wide and focused on the now deceptively empty lobby. "I saw something," he muttered nervously.

"Yeah, yeah, you and all the other nuts in here."

The hand finally slipped off the agent's shoulder allowing him to turn and face the small gathering. He paled at the sight of three corpses on the floor, their innards on display as their blood dried slowly on the floorboards. His stare flickered up to the pallid faces of three women and four men, all in high society fashion mimicking the 1920s' flapper and gangster style. One man and one woman were both stained in spatters of blood; another had her beaded dress slashed in two places and bore visible wounds akin to claw marks while a man had bruises all over his face. Behind them was writing on the wall in blood that still trickled down it. The blood read- I AM HERE.

"Um...what happened?" John queried sheepishly as he continued to gape at the scene. Scattered beads and pearls littered the floor along with shattered glasses, spilt champagne and whiskey, torn scarves, and bloodstained books and cushions. His blue stare finally settled on an object resting beside the upturned coffee table and he shook his head with a sigh. "Really?" He looked up at the male who had yanked him into the room. "Someone trying to contact your relatives?" he queried mockingly, feeling a flush of relief with his remark as he finally calmed his nerves.

"Ha, ha Myers," came the dry retort. The speaker was hard to miss, at over six feet tall he was all muscle and despite the black top, leather pants and brown trenchcoat his carmine skin was easy to spot. Equally his black sideburns and stubble couldn't take away from the prominent horns stubs atop his head.

"They were trying to play a game," a woman spoke up coldly as she frowned over at the quivering group. "All part of the party tricks," she added as she folded her arms.

John resisted looking her in the eye, it still hurt to be in her company and worst of all she didn't seem all that aware of it. Elizabeth 'Liz' Sherman was one of the more normal looking members of the Bureau, offering a deceptive appearance of a young, fragile and dull but pretty, dark haired, pale woman. As John had soon learned she was anything but. He wished Agent Marble had given him warning that Liz would be at the hotel too but he supposed it wasn't like Marble knew or cared about John's complicated feelings with regards to Liz.

"Party tricks?" John repeated. "Does anyone want to get me up to speed here?"

The demonic looking male, known as Hellboy to the public who were meant to think him a myth and Red or HB to the few friends he had, was now glancing out into the lobby suspiciously.

"They all work for Jaden Tech Industries," Liz explained, "and this private function was a work do to celebrate the firm's latest takeover of Sirius Produce, you know, the not so secretive weapons company. Anyway, some people thought playing with an Ouija board might add to the fun, now three of them are dead, as you can see, seven are with us, and ten are missing."

"Ten?" John echoed with a frown.

"Yeah, Abe, Marble and the other agents are trying to find them now," Liz explained, "but it's a big place."

"I noticed," John murmured dryly. "So what exactly did all this?" He gestured to the bodies with one hand.

One of the women let out a whimper at his words whilst a man crossed himself and murmured a prayer.

"They said it was a demon until they saw me," Hellboy piped up dryly, "now they're not so sure."

"And what's the plan?" John quipped, happy to be passive whilst contemplating what he had encountered in the lobby.

"The usual, you shoot pointlessly at things to feel useful, I shoot at them properly, Abe offers some psychic stuff and Liz burns things, then we all go home happy," Hellboy retorted calmly.

"Okay, but are we waiting here or-" Several gunshots and yells cut off Agent Myers.

They all looked out the open doorway fearfully; the women and men clutching at one another as they heard some hissing and words that came in a voice deep and demonic. Without warning every door in the building started banging open and shut violently and claw marks appeared down the walls, conjured by an invisible source.

"I don't like this," Liz muttered. She clenched her right fist tightly to banish the small, blue flame that sprouted in her palm.

There was another yell and then a loud banging noise as someone or something came tumbling down the stairs. When the figure reached the bottom, rolling onto the lobby, the entire building fell still and silent once more. John swallowed down a curse as he took in the crumpled form; he recognised the trademark black jacket, trousers and white shirt, though the shirt was now in bloody tatters, it was an agent. Judging by the buzz cut of fuzzy blonde it was Agent Brick.

Hellboy hurried to the form without hesitation. Not so long ago he had been careless with the agents by his side and they had become cannon fodder, cut down one by one by Nazis and a demonic hellhound called Sammael. When one who he had dared to count as a friend had fallen too, stabbed mercilessly by the Nazi agent known as Kroenen, Hellboy had made a private vow to try and take better care with the men risking their lives at his side. Sure Agent Clay had pulled through in the end despite the odds but the man had never quite been the same. So Hellboy moved into potential danger even though he knew it was highly likely that Agent Brick was beyond help at this point he still had to try.

"Red!" Liz shouted out in horror as Hellboy's large form was suddenly lifted into the air by an unseen force. She rushed to help as blue flames charged up both her arms and found herself forcibly flung across the lobby to slam hard into a wall.

John followed with his gun raised, ready to make a valiant effort but he couldn't see their foe.

BANG! John let out a shot and a yell as a form appeared in front of him without warning. It was the rotted, greenish corpse of a man, grinning with a gaping hole for a mouth, and one eye hanging by a limp, damp strand of skin in a large socket. The form reeled back with a hiss as the bullet whizzed through its skull.

"We're dealing with the undead!" the voice of Abe Sapien called from the top of the staircase. "I can't get a read on them, it's too confusing!"

"Very helpful," Hellboy retorted sardonically as he turned and twisted about trying and failing to wrestle the invisible form that had him in its grasp.

Liz out a scream of anger as she stood before sending a flurry of flames at the corpse that hissed at John. John raised one arm to shield his eyes from the fire before he felt something shatter against his limb. As he lowered his arm with a wince he found himself stepping in the shards of a broken vase.

There were several screams from behind and John turned in time to see a creature not from this world tearing one of the men to shreds. It worried at him with long, black claws, ripping his skin out at the chest like ribbons before it reached the meat. It tore out the man's intestines with ease before discarding them to one side.

BANG! BANG! John shot at the creature vainly. He paled when it halted and turned its spiked, black head in his direction revealing six sets of yellow eyes, all filled with malice for him. In that moment the agent thought that his time was up at last. It was a familiar and repetitive thought now, the kind one got used to when in the Bureau but right now he wondered if maybe this time the sands in his hourglass really had run out.

The creature was charging at him, bloody claws out and at the ready when it froze. There was a voice chanting from behind John, the same voice that had recited the eerie poem earlier, he was certain of it. It was saying something in a language he didn't understand but whatever it was, it was having an effect on the creature.

"Destroy the board!" the woman's voice snapped out from behind as she finished her chanting.

A woman in the room looked at the Ouija board like it was a snake before she dared to step towards it. It was a fatal move as she found herself mercilessly snatched by another unseen form and her head slammed up and down into a chest of drawers. Over and over her skull was pounded into the wood until her screams ceased and her face was just a pulp of blood and mashed flesh. John swallowed down a mouthful of vomit at the sight.

A ball of blue fire whizzed past John's left side into the room, successfully hitting the Ouija board. The demonic black creature let out a howl of agony as the board went up in flames. The entire building shook then and every window shattered.

Hellboy found himself dropped to the floor unceremoniously with a loud thud followed by the iron and crystal chandelier than landed just inches from him. He hastened to his feet in time to see the woman behind John with her arms extended up and out and her brown hair whipping about in a frenzy as she yelled at something he couldn't see.

"You're ashes and dust now! Go back to the dead, the living do not want you!" she snapped angrily.

The lights flickered out save for the blue flames dancing around Liz and the house continued to tremble violently.

"Your time is over here!" the woman yelled. "Back to the other side!"

John watched as the black creature turned to ashes as did the Ouija board. At last the hotel fell still. John remained tense for a moment, ready for yet another scare, sagging only when Hellboy's voice called out.

"I think it's time to go," Hellboy said calmly, "before this place collapses."

No one needed told twice and they all hurried out to gather in a frightened and bedraggled state before the hotel. Agent Marble and Abe Sapien emerged last, following the five of the missing ten that they had managed to find. The agents did a head count before grimly adding up the number of bodies to make sure no one was missing, Agent Brick was the only fatality on their side whilst nine of the twenty party guests were left unable to check out of the former hotel. The skeleton staff hired for the evening were all accounted for, though some bore grave injuries.

As Agent Marble took charge of the civilians and lesser agents, calling for ambulances and back up, Abe, Liz, and Hellboy rounded on the newcomer. Only when Hellboy queried bluntly, "who and what the hell are you?" did John look her way also.

The male agent turned an odd shade of grey as he took her form in, and there he had thought his surprises over for the morning. For a moment he was unsure, eyeing her like she was another ghost and blinking hard as if hopeful that her form would dissipate. He thought of all the things that made him try to convince himself that it wasn't her, that it couldn't be but one look of those hostile violet-blue eyes and he knew he was wrong. "Embry?" he said the name softly as if he didn't want anyone to hear it, not even her.

She had thick rivets of blood pouring out of both nostrils, her chin and neck were already crimson with it and yet she made no effort to stop it. Her eyes were bloodshot with heavy, dark bags under them and there was a tremble in her hands she couldn't seem to suppress. The violet-blue eyes, fair skin and dark hair John remembered. The slight curved tip to her nose, the faint scarring at her neck, and the vaguely pointed ears he recalled too but the clothes weren't her and she hadn't been so tall last time and she had been bonier, though he couldn't be unhappy to see her better filled out.

"Yes John," she answered frostily as she folded her arms and frowned at him.

"Wait, you know him?" Hellboy quipped as he jerked a red thumb in John's direction. "He doesn't know anyone unusual outside the Bureau."

"Know me?" she murmured, still hostile. "No he doesn't know me, he has never known me."

Liz looked over at John curiously, seeing the raw pain that filled his face at the stranger's words she knew that he didn't just know the woman but that he had to know her on a personal level. "Myers?" she queried calmly, waiting for him to explain.

John's blue stare flickered over at the mention of his name and he immediately regretted it as he caught Liz's probing, almost sympathetic stare. He swallowed hard as he tore his gaze from her and found it once more upon the new arrival. He tried to guess how long it had been, how old she might be now but he couldn't, he had made too much of an effort to force those memories deep inside him. "Why are you here Embry?" he queried quietly.

"The dead draw me," she retorted bitterly, "you know, the dead I make up in my head? Or do you believe it now? I mean," she suddenly gestured outwards with both hands as her tone turned savage, "here you are in the company of Hellboy and you're not even flinching! You, who called me crazy and forgot me to the madhouse, are suddenly in the company of a demon man and a woman who can conjure fire!" She gave Liz an unpleasant look then and noticeably took a step away from her before continuing her verbal barrage. "Let me guess though, you still think I'm a lunatic, right John?"

"This is getting awkward," Abe piped up as he looked at the woman ambiguously, keeping his emotions guarded as he usually did.

"No it's getting interesting," Hellboy mused as he watched the woman and John like they were part of a t.v drama.

"I..." John didn't even know where to begin, so many questions were buzzing through his mind but he couldn't settle on one. "I'm sorry." The words slipped out of him in a blundering moment, his voice sounding weak, pathetic even.

The slap came instantly, her right hand striking off his cheek hard. Hellboy let out a low cheer of delight whilst Liz looked stunned. The woman's hand turned into an accusing point at John as he looked back at her with hurt but no surprise. "You're a lousy brother John," she snarled at him hatefully.


	2. Chapter 1- Life in the Bureau

Thomas Manning was in a more heightened state of fury than usual as he stormed up the corridor, following down the path a panicked doctor had fled from. A doctor of the paranormal to be precise, an expert who didn't even flinch at Hellboy anymore, well much, but had now been scared by the latest addition to the freaks. Manning had been suspicious upon learning she was related to Myers, he couldn't understand how anyone unusual could be related to the vanilla agent. Given the way Myers palled up to Hellboy and the others Manning didn't have hopes for his sister being any less of a pain in the ass.

The director of the B.P.R.D wasn't even certain why he was entertaining her presence. Three weeks it had been now since she had appeared at the hotel with her creepy skills. Agent Marble had tried and failed to detain her immediately but it turned out he needn't have bothered because she was curious enough to see the Bureau but, just like Liz, she had little desire to be a part of it. Manning wasn't exactly sure why she thought she had a choice in the matter, surely the options were being detained by the bureau or being locked up by a shadier branch of the government to never be seen again. The whole point of the bureau was to keep weird individuals out of sight and mind for the public and Manning wasn't too comfortable with Liz or this newest pain in the ass coming and going as if the bureau was a halfway house.

Manning wasn't even sure where exactly it was she went; at least with Liz he had an idea. Now he was losing patience however and so were his superiors. The order was coming down; the illusion of choice for the freaks was going to have to be removed.

He flung open the wooden door into the clinician room with his usual flair for dramatics, two agents hot on his heels to offer support against the entirely unthreatening young woman dwelling within. She was seated on a metal table swinging her legs over the edge idly whilst fiddling with the bracelets on her right wrist. When Manning came charging in she just sighed before offering him a half-hearted smile. "He wanted to try and find out why I can do what I can do," she murmured.

"And what the hell is it that you can do exactly?" Manning snarled at her in outrage. "He ran out of here like a madman ranting about drowning!"

"Well..." Embry Myers offered an awkward shrug as she looked down at her collection of bracelets and continued to pluck at them obsessively. "That's the thing, and I didn't know," she added defensively as she gave Manning a cold look, "his sister drowned you see and he was there. People who cling to death shouldn't be around me, it doesn't work well. Plus," she added crossly, "he tried to use needles, I don't like needles."

"No one should be around you," Manning grumbled. "I don't even know why I put up with this," he continued as he raised a hand to his balding head. He wondered how much hair loss he had had since being 'promoted' to this position. "It's not enough having Hellboy and fish man and fire girl but now I've got you, another bloody Myers."

"I don't like the association either," she muttered as she finally stopped fidgeting with her bracelets and jumped off the table. She grinned when she saw one of the agents flinch and take a nervous step back. "Look I thought you guys wanted my help," she said calmly, "and I'm in the mood to give it but I'm in no mood to be pestered by doctors and scientists, especially not ones obsessed with death."

Manning dropped his hand to let out an angry, sarcastic laugh. "You help us? When it comes to help from freaks we have it in spades," he informed her dryly. "Look I cut you some slack because of your brother but my patience is wearing thin, you're doing more harm here than good and I already have Hellboy physically damaging this place without you mentally traumatising the staff."

"That man was already traumatised," Embry grumbled. "Anyway, I'm out of here, when you need me you can let me know." She stepped up to them and when the two agents remained in her path she offered them a frosty, mocking smile. "You know ghosts like to latch onto people, I mean if you hang around long enough they might be inclined to pick one of you as a new host."

The two men exchanged an uncomfortable look before standing back. Manning tried to put on a brave front but he noticeably paled and even shuddered slightly when Embry almost brushed past him.

"You don't get to leave this facility!" Manning shouted after her, braver as she walked away from him.

Embry continued down the corridor calmly until she bumped into her breathless brother who had come running upon hearing word of the latest incident in the bureau. John Myers frowned down at his sister as he halted in front of her. "Embry what happened?" he demanded wearily.

"Just more of my crazy," she retorted airily with another shrug.

John's frown deepened. He knew he deserved being frozen out by the woman and he had certainly earned her contempt over the years but could she not attempt to open up a little to him? God damn it he was trying his best with her after all! How could he have known that she really had been seeing ghosts all this time? "Embry come on," he pleaded. "I know the bureau is hard to get used to but I think it will be good for you here, give it a chance." He added to himself mentally, 'and I can get the chance to find out where you've been all this time.'

"Why? Because there are other freaks here?" she quipped, her voice still taut with anger. "Do you think I'll find a cosy home here and then you can pat yourself on the back and assume all is forgiven because it's okay now that I'm sharing with others? I'm twenty-six John, that's a whole lot of years for you to dismiss me as mad and a liar, and it's a real long time to be in and out of mental homes with no friends or family to support me."

John's milky white face tinged slightly as he tried to hide the guilt from it. He was becoming a bit better at hiding his emotions in his role as an agent but it was difficult and he was still green to the job. All things considered he didn't think it was desirable either to be a complete robot, it was his humane side that Liz and Hellboy had ultimately responded to after all.

"Embry I'm sorry okay," he answered her vehemently, "a hundred times over, I had no idea what was really going on in the world or with you. I was blind and deaf to it all at home, I admit it but I really thought you would be safer in the asylum, it got you away from him."

"Don't," Embry cut him off with a hostile look.

John looked ready to protest until an impatient yell echoed up the corridor to the right. "MYERS I'M GETTING HUNGRY HERE!"

John sighed and gave his sister a sheepish look. "Red wants his lunch," he explained. "Do you want to come? It's an eye opener seeing how much the big guy can put away; you'll never guess, trust me."

Embry contemplated a refusal but she enjoyed spending time with the demonic looking man, it was one of the main reasons why she gave the bureau her time. There were other reasons too but when she tried to consider them, especially when Manning or John got her back up, the reasons evaded her. The past three weeks had been challenging and she had considered abandoning the bureau on multiple occasions but somehow she always found herself back here, drawn to the elements of the paranormal like a cat to a mouse.

She said nothing but gave a brief nod. John offered her a flicker of a smile before he led the way to Hellboy's large, filthy and cat infested domain. Embry had once tensed at the sight, the endless clutter of beer and energy drink cans, pizza crusts, pancake crumbs, and steak rinds took some getting used to along with the smell they provided, and the endless meowing of cats that were as quick to offer claws as they were to look for attention.

"Hey it's the Myers Kids!" Hellboy greeted them cheerfully as he sat down the set of weights he was lifting with his left hand.

"Cute," Embry retorted sardonically as she eyed the weights with approval. The demonic male could crush a car like it was a flower and yet he cradled his cats like they were made of glass. The young woman considered it sad that such a complex being could only be seen as a dangerous freak by many in the bureau and a bogeyman by the members of the public, many of whom still thought him a myth thanks to the bureau's efforts.

"Does the bureau use you to protect the world or does it protect the world from you?" Embry suddenly wondered aloud.

John looked at her with mild disapproval whilst Hellboy looked only a little surprised before he let out a snicker. "That's deep girl Myers," he said teasingly, "you should talk to Abe more."

"Does the question have an answer?" she pressed.

Hellboy shrugged nonchalantly but John could see the hurt in his yellow eyes before he banished it. "Myers where the hell are my pancakes?" he demanded. A beeping noise sounded and Hellboy muttered a curse as he saw his red light signalling his alarm. "Great, what now?" he grumbled as John's phone went off.

John flipped it open and answered, "Agent Myers. We'll be right there." He snapped it shut again and looked at HB seriously. "There's a...something running loose in the park."

"A something?" Hellboy and Embry both echoed.

Embry arched a dark eyebrow at her brother and shook her head. "I hope it's not your job to write the reports."

John gave her a short, awkward laugh in response. "Actually it is," he confessed before he turned to the door and started to move.

Embry followed after them, marvelling as Hellboy overtook them in the corridor with ease, bounding along the side of the steel wall every time someone got in his way, oblivious to the dents he left in it. John only became aware of Embry's company when he actually reached their destination- the dubious waste management trucks. He glanced at his sister warily and considered ordering her to stay behind but he knew how well the order would be received and besides, wasn't this a good thing? If Embry tagged along and helped out it might help her feel better about a position within the bureau. Plus, it was only code red, whatever it was it wasn't dangerous enough to require the whole gang apparently.

He gestured to Embry to step into the van's side door to join Hellboy before he dragged it shut. He then took a seat up beside Agent Marble, ignoring the scowl the older man gave him. John had never given a lot of thought to his predecessor and brief mentor Agent Clay but the more time he spent with Marble the more he longed for Clay. Clay had at least been friendly to a degree, helpful even.

John and Marble spent the journey in their usual serious silence, occasionally getting updates over the radio whilst Embry and Hellboy had a less serious session of rock, paper, scissors as Embry coerced the demon man into a game.

Thirty minutes later found them rolling up into the empty car park of a local park that was meant to be shut for the night. The clock read 22:30, still early enough for horny teens, drunks and hobos seeking shelter on benches Myers ventured, and way too many witnesses for Hellboy.

"The park lights are off," Marble grunted as he turned off the engine and opened his door.

John nodded, guessing the agency had done that rather than whatever was in the park. He knew there were at least two civilians, they had put in the call to the police about a monster chasing them, the police had naturally dismissed it as a prank or drug usage and their token squad car was nowhere to be seen yet. John couldn't imagine those officers would be too quick to come and deal with a monster in the park. The bureau had taken a different view to the matter however.

"Hey Myers hurry up, it's kinda cramped in here!" Hellboy called out impatiently.

John opened the door dutifully, keeping his back to it as he surveyed the park. Everything was in shade of greys and brown, the trees and bushes were still and the lake was smooth as glass. John knew something was wrong about it but he couldn't figure out what until Embry voiced it.

"It's too quiet," the woman murmured as she jumped out of the van first.

Hellboy hopped out with little subtly, immediately denting the tarmac beneath him as he landed.

"And now it's not," Embry said cheerfully as she eyed the park cautiously.

John tugged out his gun the moment the screams came. They all moved at once, Hellboy taking a lead with ease as he cleared every twenty steps they took with one smooth jump. They found themselves heading downhill, trampling over flowers and through bushes until they reached the koi ponds.

There was a loud splashing as a woman reared up out of a pond screaming. "HELP ME!" she shrieked at them as she clutched at her damp hair and tried to stumble forward.

There was a loud snarl and in a blur of fur and a splash of blood the woman was suddenly snatched from view.

"What the hell was that?" John queried with a forced calm as he readied his H&K.

There was another scream as the woman lunged out of the bushes soaked in blood and screaming for dear life. Hellboy moved to reach for her but just as he caught her right hand a beast came pouncing out, its huge, black paws pressing down hard on the woman before its teeth crushed her skull in one loud crunch.

"That's a run the fuck away from it," Embry answered her brother at last as her eyes went wide at the sight.

The creature looked like a wolf only it was twice the size of one and it appeared to have a set of golden-brown feathered wings and a reptilian, green tail.

Hellboy swung hard with his stone right hand, sending the beast back into the bushes with a powerful punch. There was some rustling before the beast moved out and up into the air with an incredible speed. Hellboy didn't notice until it was making a nosedive for him. He started to raise his faithful gun, the Samaritan, but the wolf was quicker and its teeth were worrying at his teeth before he could shoot.

John and Marble started shooting at the thing and only when several other snarls called through the darkness did they realise that they were not alone. Three more wolves came snapping towards them, smaller and without wings; they still looked just as threatening as Hellboy's foe.

Hellboy holstered his gun to grab his foe by the scruff with his left hand, holding it in place so he could punch it repeatedly with his stone hand. "Nice doggy," he grunted as it yelped and flapped its wings wildly.

Agent Marble let out a cry of alarm when a wolf sprang at him, its front paws hitting his chest hard and pushing him to the ground. John turned and immediately took aim at the creature. BANG! He let off a shot into its skull just as one leaped for him. A yell of agony erupted from John as two strong jaws full of sharp teeth clamped down on his arm.

Embry found herself faced with a third wolf, coming at her with a wild hate blazing in its red eyes. She didn't think when she saw Marble fall and heard John yell, she just acted. Her right arm came up as if to shield her face only it wasn't a gesture of defence but one of action. As her arm moved up something else moved up too.

Agent Marble spluttered in a rare moment of horror as he sat up in time to see Embry's show of talent. The bloodied corpse of the recently killed woman was on its feet and running at a wolf madly. It was a disturbing sight as the woman's head was a mess of crushed flesh sagging on her claw marked shoulders and there was an odd sound of gibberish coming from her though Marble didn't know how given her mouth had been crushed by the wolf's jaws. He actually felt himself shudder as the thing sprinted past him and tackled the wolf.

The wolf turned in a moment of surprise as the body fell upon it, nails reaching up to claw at its eyes. It reared and tried to toss her off, its muzzle snapping back and forth as it tried to catch at her hands.

Embry was panting heavily and her eyes had clouded over slightly. "Shouldn't have done this," she muttered as her heart started to hammer hard against her chest. She gritted her teeth and a squeal of pain escaped her, she was losing control.

A low supersonic boom suddenly bloomed from the woman across the park. Hellboy dropped the now battered wolf to the ground in alarm as he felt the vibrations brush against his leg. The wolf worrying at John looked up in surprise giving the injured agent the advantage he needed.

BANG! John's shot echoed out across the park just as all hell really broke loose.

Agent Marble's eyes went wide as he hastened to his feet, his gun swinging round wildly as all the bushes and trees seemed to rustle then.

"Oh shit," Hellboy remarked dryly.

There was the sound of branches snapping before five forms suddenly came at them, hissing and snarling as they did. Two were human males. One recently deceased from the look of him, he had one eye dangling from his right socket, his nose was broken and his intestines were hanging out of his stomach. The second male was older, bearded and in a state of decay, his skin was greenish and dangling off his bones, and his clothes were rags. Two were foxes, one in a serious state of decay it had probably died months ago and its bones were visible in several places. The fifth form was a crow that was missing its right leg and its left eye, and it croaked at them in an eerie manner.

Hellboy winced slightly as the younger male came running at him, arms extended and a bloody drool seeping out of his lips as he groaned and hissed like a mindless beast. "I don't really want to hurt you," the demonic male said sincerely even as he lifted his gun. "I think this might be a mercy though."

BANG! BANG! BANG! Marble was less hesitant, letting off three shots at the older male coming towards him. One went wild, whilst two sank into the man's throat but they barely slowed him down. Marble cursed as his gun clicked signalling it was empty and he threw it to one side before reaching for his second.

John lifted his gun slowly to the crow eyeing him with one dried up black eye but he didn't really know what to do. The thing was squawking threateningly and hopping ever closer but it was still just a bird.

BANG! Hellboy's gunshot gave off a louder shot than the agents' feeble weapons. It did a lot more damage than necessary obliterating all recognition off the young male's face as it blew his skull clean away.

"Shit," Embry cursed as the shot pulled her back to her senses.

BANG! BANG! Marble's bullets cut through the older male's knees sending him to the ground with a grunt. It didn't stop him though; he immediately started crawling along the dirt with a terrible speed.

"Back to the ground!" Embry shouted suddenly as the foxes surrounded John with several snarls. "Your time is over! Back to the ground!" She waved her right arm to one side in a sharp gesture before tugging out a small vial from her left pocket. She pulled the stopper out of it and sprinkled its clear, damp contents onto the dirt before her. "This ground is holy now, find your peace in it!" she commanded. The sweat was lashing down her skin and she could feel a headache beginning at the side of her temples but she tried to ignore it and keep focused. "Find your peace and move on! Your time is over!"

The corpses suddenly collapsed without warning, going still in a matter of seconds like puppets that had had their strings cut.

For a moment everyone was silent as they tried to take in what had happened. The wolves seemed to have dissolved into a black ash that was already becoming lost to the faint wind that was starting to stir.

"You raised the dead!" It was Agent Marble who broke the silence. He yelled at Embry whilst pointing at her with his left hand accusingly. "You need to be locked up!"

Embry didn't wait to hear the rest; instead she turned and bolted off into the night.

"Embry wait!" John called after her. He made to follow but his arm had lost a lot of blood and his vision flickered to black as he started to move.

"Easy Myers," Hellboy chided him though his gaze was on the direction Embry had fled. He thought about chasing after her but then he thought about what might happen if he- a big, scary red guy, was seen chasing after her- a young, human looking woman. Besides, what was he going to do if he caught up to her? Bring her back to the Bureau whose own agent had just told her she needed locked up?

Agent Marble looked at John now with a burning accusation. "She's dangerous," he snarled out hotly. "Did you know she could do that? Did you keep that from us?"

"I think Myers is a little too occupied with his pain to answer your questions," Hellboy pointed out dryly.

John wanted to give his friend a look of gratitude but right now it was all he could do to keep standing.

"Come on Myers," Hellboy said as he reached out his left hand to help steady the agent.

It took a couple of hours before John's arm was properly stitched up and bandaged. During that time Agent Marble submitted his damning report of the evening's events. Manning digested the news with little humour knowing what had to come next.

The B.P.R.D head charged down to the medical ward to confront a pasty faced John in his bed. He was being consoled by Hellboy who gave Manning a look of displeasure, knowing the boss had come to chide rather than praise.

"Your sister needs brought in, now," Manning said sternly as he pointed at John accusingly. "She is a liability and if it comes out that you kept her abilities from us then your ass could fry for this."

"Don't be ridiculous Manning," Hellboy chided, "John hasn't seen her in years, how would he know what she can do? Maybe she doesn't even know what she can do."

"Damn it I don't care!" Manning snapped with a look of despair. "She raised the dead in the park! That's not something that's easy to contain! Some couple saw skeleton ducks swimming on the pond and a hobo reported a half-dead horse wandering past him! Christ Myers just tell me where she is!"

John frowned as he pushed himself upright with a slight wince. "I don't know," he confessed frostily, "she hasn't told me where she lives but I'll find out."

"No," Manning snapped with a wave of his hand, "not you."

"Not Marble," John protested.

Manning gave him a look of irritation before a sigh escaped him. "No, not him either, he's liable to shoot her at this rate."

"She's my sister," John pointed out, "just let me talk to her."

"That's exactly why it won't be you," Manning retorted angrily, "she isn't being invited, there's no choice in this, she's coming back here and staying."

"You can't force her," John argued with a glower.

"She no longer has the luxury of choice, none of us have that bloody luxury anymore," Manning grumbled with a shake of his head. "Alright, let me think," he raised one hand to his temple as he turned away from the pair. "Agent Clay," he decided, "he needs to prove he's fit to join us, this should do the trick."

"Are you serious?" John snarled with an incredulous look. "She doesn't even know him!"

"Well she knows Agent Marble," Manning argued, "it could still be him Myers."

"Can we talk to Clay before he goes looking?" Hellboy queried calmly. "You know, give him some pointers on where he might look."

Manning just shook his head with a frown. "You have no idea where to look," he grumbled. "We're only assuming she has somewhere to stay based on the way she comes and goes from this place but fine, you get five minutes with him, then he finds your sister or Agent Marble does."


	3. Chapter 2- Agent Clay

Agent Clay eyed the crooked 77 on the feeble, wooden apartment door warily. The iron of the numbers was tarnished looking, the silver paint long chipped away and he guessed that another few heavy bangs of the door would send the numbers crashing to the ground. This was the seventh apartment for him to try, lucky number seven at number 77, it had a certain irony to it he thought dryly as he reached up a black gloved hand to knock the door.

John had babbled at him about how Embry liked charms and was superstitious to a degree and wouldn't share with anyone but wouldn't dwell too far from company either. Then he had mumbled about not really knowing anymore since he hadn't seen her in years and she had changed until Hellboy had elbowed him and nodded pointedly at Manning. Hellboy's tips were actually more useful than John's; he had remarked how the woman had a liking for Indian food since she sometimes came to the Bureau with naan bread and curry, and not the cheap stuff either, and that she usually smelt of leather so he assumed she lived near a shoe shop or cobbler. Then John had chimed up, unhelpfully, about her liking caramel apples once until Clay had reminded him frostily that he wasn't trying to date the woman just locate her.

He had searched about the city, looking for low rent apartments near respectable Indian takeaways and possibly shoe shops or something similar that might explain the odour of leather. He realised where he had gone wrong when he had found the small Indian mart on the corner of Brooker Street, Hellboy had said the Indian was of good quality after all, it wasn't takeaway food, it was store bought.

Now here he was, two hours and forty minutes later, wondering how chasing down a young woman in the city could really be his way back to the bureau and the life he had meant to leave months ago. He didn't even know who he was trying to impress with this- Manning, who had next to no faith in him, Hellboy, who was still sore at him for leaving him with John and only talking to him because he had technically died while on a mission with him (if only for a few minutes), or himself, the agent suddenly so unsure of his own abilities and limitations. Was finding John's wayward sister, who he didn't even know, beneath him or the perfect challenge to ease himself back into the paranormal nature of the job?

The middle aged agent felt a mild confidence as he waited for an answer to the door that probably wouldn't come. He didn't particularly want to break the door in, it wouldn't be giving a good first impression after all but orders were orders and he certainly couldn't afford to fail on this. He sighed and knocked again, wondering deprecatingly if his knock sounded too forceful.

He heard footsteps, slow and laboured, before a couple of locks clicked and the door was eased back slowly, stopped by a thin, gold chain that was an utterly pointless defence. Agent Clay studied the hostile face peering out at him- fair skin, violet-blue eyes, long, brown hair and a passing resemblance to John. She had the same youthful, pale looks as her brother but the knife in her left hand suggested she did not share the same dumb, innocent trust in the world.

"Oh God you're all just copies of each other aren't you?" she grumbled at him with a roll of her eyes. "Same suits and everything, only thing different is the hair."

Agent Clay winced slightly at that remark, his thick, dark and gradually receding hair was a sore point for him after all, and had once been an easy point of mocking for Hellboy. "Well that hurts," he murmured sardonically, "and we do have different faces too you know, Agent Marble has a much bigger nose than me."

The woman offered him a small, glimpse of a smile at that before she could help herself. "And you are?" she demanded as she tried to reassert her defensive position.

"Agent Clay," he introduced.

"Exactly my point," she retorted flatly, "completely the same, he's Marble, you're Clay, Brick's dead, and I hear good things about Stone. Oh, well you've got a coat on, suppose that's something different, Marble doesn't like coats much."

"I think you know they're code names," Clay replied chidingly as he gave her a condescending look. "Anyway, aren't you the duplicate here? Another Myers?"

She made a face at that and grumbled, "ugh please don't, I can't help sharing that name. So what are you here for hmm, to drag me kicking and screaming back to the bureau?"

"Yes," he replied sincerely, "but I would prefer to come to an arrangement without the kicking and screaming, maybe without the dragging too."

"Maybe?" She arched a curious, dark eyebrow at that.

Clay noticed that her demeanour was sterner than her brother's, whilst John's questioning nature came from an innocent desire to get to know people his sister's curiosity was evidently more based around sizing people up and probably looking for their weaknesses. "Hopefully," he retorted. "Now, can I come in before the lady across the hall from you, who's watching all this through the keyhole, decides to call the cops?"

Embry folded her arms as she regarded him mistrustfully through the crack in her door. "Why you?" she demanded. "Why not John or Marble?"

Clay shrugged. "John's your brother and the way Manning is telling it Marble wouldn't be giving you a choice. Red however tells me that you more or less made Marble shit his pants and he's less than grateful for that. I am the in between if you like, I've never met you before so I'm neutral."

"Alright Switzerland say I let you in, what then?"

"We talk like adults, and maybe you offer me coffee unless it's cheap and you've no sugar. Look I could've broken down your door but I didn't, and I could've called for backup but I haven't," he pointed out with a hint of impatience creeping into his voice. "I only got a five minute summary of tonight from multiple sources that differed every time I heard it but I get that you had a bad night, and I don't want to make it worse and I don't want you making my night worse, so I'll play nice as long as you do."

Embry sighed before closing the door abruptly in his face. For a few seconds Agent Clay worried that he would have to break in the door after all until he heard the jingle of the lock slipping off the chain. The door was reopened and the young woman stepped back to grant him entry into her shambled quarters.

The kitchen and sitting area were all one grimy room, peeling, yellow lino and a chipped breakfast bar separated the kitchen off from the worn, stained, wooden floor of the sitting area. The main light of the kitchen hummed and flickered on and off incessantly whilst a lamp offered some light in the sitting area as the main light bulb was missing. The owner was more colourful, dressed in a bohemian style with a loose, cream jumper from beneath which a lacy, pink skirt was visible and knee high, laced up, brown, leather boots. She also wore numerous bracelets and necklaces displaying various charms and pendants, some that Clay figured might be of a more practical nature than mere decoration.

"I've only got instant," Embry murmured as she gestured half-heartedly to the lone, battered and saggy, grey couch that looked like it might have been purple to begin with.

"I was kidding about the coffee, especially if there's no sugar," Clay retorted as he gave the place a quick once over.

"There's sugar but it has brown bits in it," Embry answered brightly as she walked towards the kitchen area and surrendered the knife at last, abandoning it to the knife rack.

Clay shut the door and moved to stand awkwardly in the middle of the sitting area, refusing to rest on the questionable couch. "You should come back to the bureau, it's not all bad," he said as he looked across to Embry who was now leaning on the breakfast bar.

"Straight to the point," she retorted calmly, "I suppose I should be glad you're direct. And why should I be a prisoner of a place that thinks I'm freak?" she quipped cynically.

"Well, firstly, the building doesn't think you're a freak nor does everyone there and if you really think they can hold you there you're dumber than they are. Don't worry I thought it too for the first few years, your brother probably did as well. Hell I wonder if he still sometimes thinks he's the positive influence keeping Red playing nice with the bureau but the truth is Red stays because he wants too, same with Abe and should they ever choose differently, then it will be different. Surely you've heard how many times Liz has quit being a member?"

Embry nodded. "And secondly?" she demanded calmly.

"Secondly, you've little other option. You have unpaid rental notices there," he pointed out as he nodded to the stained envelopes on an end table by the couch, half hidden beneath stained cups and glasses. "I don't get the impression you're working much because your medication is definitely stolen, those labels are all different," he added as he nodded to the small boxes and brown, plastic cylinders sitting on the breakfast bar, "which means you can't afford it, and this place reeks of damp and rat faeces."

Embry glanced down with a slight frown as she mentally scolded herself for having her life so clearly on display for the agent. "Apparently I should have cleaned before letting you in," she said frostily as she looked up to face him.

"Come back to the bureau," he urged, "it's nice and warm at least."

"What's in it for you if I do?" Embry demanded as her stare turned suspicious. "How come you weren't afraid to come here?"

Clay met her gaze and he knew she wouldn't be easily fobbed off, he could almost see the gears turning in her head as she realised he had something to gain from her return to the bureau. "I get a nice pat on the back, that's all."

"Aren't we playing nice Agent Clay? Do you really expect me to believe you came to track me down and bring me back, not knowing me, only what you briefly heard, some horror story about zombies undoubtedly, just because? You're not here just because you can play neutral."

He rubbed his right hand through his dark hair wearily, part of him thinking stubbornly that he owed the strange, young woman nothing whilst another part of him wondered if it might make things easier if he simply admitted his role. "I've been off for a while," he confessed as he lowered his hand, "and this is how Manning thinks I should earn my place back."

"Ah," an excited gleam filled her eyes, "now we're getting somewhere. So if I don't come back with you, you...don't get promoted?"

"I don't get a job," he answered flatly, "or at least a job worth doing. Look, my points still stand, you're living in a filthy place you can't afford, you're in need of healthcare, and the bureau really isn't all that bad and you won't have to stay there."

"I have headaches, that's all," she retorted sullenly, "and I can manage. I've managed without your precious bureau for twenty-six years."

"Managing ain't always living is it? I've managed without the bureau too," he admitted grimly.

"And you didn't like it," Embry guessed. "Alright fine, I'll come along, for tonight anyway but I want three things from you."

"Yes?" He gave her a calm, willing stare though he wondered if she was going to be petty enough to demand the impossible or if she was going to be reasonable.

"One, a nice supper, I don't have much money as you've pointed out and I'm getting hungry, two, you promise you don't tell anyone about how I live, it's no one's business but mine, and three," she paused and pointed at him with one finger, "you swear that I won't be a prisoner in the bureau."

Clay let out a laboured sigh. "Fine," he agreed at last. He supposed dryly that her three demands weren't so extravagant and if it meant an end to his troubled evening he was more than willing.

"You swear?" she queried with a serious stare as she stood upright and walked out from behind the breakfast bar. She walked up to him and extended out a nimble hand.

"I swear," he retorted bluntly as he tugged off his leather glove and accepted the hand.

 _A faceless man in the shadows. It was an eyeless figure all in black moving steadily towards him, he knew it couldn't be human but he shot anyway because all he had was his gun. Not a single bullet slowed it. The blows came fast, two sharp, gut wrenching stabs through his flesh, sudden and fiery. He tasted blood as it rushed up his throat like a geyser ready to explode and tried to shoot again but it was over before it had even begun. The thing stabbed him in rapid succession like he was meat to be skewered but he didn't feel it, he had already turned numb. His blood was spilling out of his lips now, he was choking on it and he knew his heart wasn't working right._

 _He fell hard, hit the water with a splash and saw the world fade to shades of blurred grey as the hot pain returned to him. Then came the blackness- thick, suffocating and merciless._

Embry jolted back from the agent with a look of alarm. He was sweating, his pupils were dilated and his skin had turned an odd shade of grey. "I'm sorry," she stammered out, "I didn't mean to...shit I didn't know! Why the hell did they send someone like you?"

"Someone like me?" he queried numbly, his voice sounded faint as if he were caught in a dream, or a nightmare.

"Someone who died," she retorted bluntly as she hugged herself and frowned.

He shook his head trying to clear the images that flickered through it. 'Just memories,' he told himself wearily, 'horrible, horrible memories.' He sucked in a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair, once an obsessive gesture to reassure himself that the transplants had taken root, now it had become a gesture of nervous habit. He winced slightly as he caught a flashback of Kroenen, the Nazi monster who had become, if only briefly, his killer. It was weird to think one might actually recall one's own murderer or indeed one's own murder. He found his left hand rising to lips as he tasted blood there but his fingers came away dry. He froze up as he started to lower his hand and looked over at Embry in horror, there was blood trickling down her chin in two thick, crimson streams.

She flinched as if finally noticing it and one hand rose to touch it, accidently smearing it across her chin. She turned away from him with a look of self-revulsion and he didn't know what to say. This he had been unprepared for; this wasn't exactly raising the dead now, was it? Maybe raising the memories of the dead but that was hardly the same thing.

"It was only for a couple of minutes," he explained awkwardly, trying not to think about it as he spoke. "My heart stopped but they got it working again."

"It doesn't matter," she said coldly as she continued staring at a corner of the wall and rubbing at her chin feebly, "people who have had that experience shouldn't be around me. I have this way of bringing back the death, I don't mean to, I just do."

"And the blood?" He fumbled in his coat pocket and produced a mostly unused handkerchief. He frowned at the minor stains on it before he held it out in her direction anyway; it had to be better than her hand.

She looked at the handkerchief with surprise before snatching it off him, taking care not to touch his fingertips as she did, even though he offered it to her with his gloved hand. "I experience a little of the death too I suppose."

"Shit."

"That sums it up, yeah."

He found his eyes rolling down to his torso thinking of the many scars hidden beneath his crisp, white shirt and then his eyes darted up to her cream jumper as he wondered at the potential wounds concealed there. He could see no bloodstains forming and she was not clutching at her torso or wincing.

"There'll be bruising," she said flatly, answering his unasked question as she turned her gaze down, "but nothing worse." With her free hand she clutched at one of the many pendants dangling about her chest and she fiddled with it between a finger and a thumb.

"I almost feel like I should apologise for having such an unpleasant death, brief as it was," he remarked awkwardly.

Embry gave him a faint smile. "It's not your fault you temporarily died Agent Clay," she replied calmly. "As long as you aren't too weirded out to buy me supper it's okay."

"I'm not," he murmured. "So what do you want for supper? Not to hinder your choice but I don't have much cash on me and I am a man of limited means."

"I know," Embry retorted lightly, "if you weren't desperate you wouldn't be here. Anyway, I'll settle for pizza."

"Pizza?" Clay repeated with a dubious look.

Embry nodded. "Yeah pizza, I haven't had any in a long time."

"Alright, pizza then, I assume since you haven't had any in a while you don't care where it's from?"

Embry gave him a stern look at this as she folded her arms. "To a degree, it's my first pizza in a while; I'd appreciate a nice one."

"Okay, and then after you'll come to the bureau?"

Embry sighed before unfolding her arms and nodding. "Yes, I'll come to the stupid bureau."

"Good."

* * *

"Pizza, Agent Clay?"

Clay frowned at Abe before waving him off with one hand. "Don't do the psychic thing on me Blue," he implored before folding his arms again.

"He can't do it on girl Myers," Hellboy explained as he grinned from the psychic amphibious being to the agent, "so he tries to pick up things about her from people who have been with her. What does he mean by pizza anyway?" Hellboy turned, placing himself directly in front of the agent who was leaning against the wall with a tired expression.

The three were in the library where Abe spent most of his time. It was also a room rarely visited by anyone else since Professor Bruttenholm's murder, and offered them privacy and peace. Ordinarily these were two things Hellboy strove to avoid but when it meant a chance to interrogate Agent Clay about Myers' sister without disturbance he couldn't resist seizing the opportunity.

Abe stood beside Hellboy and lifted a webbed hand revealing the blue indented palm to Clay. "Anchovies and mushrooms," Abe mused.

"Do I have to say please?" Clay queried sardonically as he gave the extrasensory being an exasperated look.

Once Clay had regarded Abraham 'Abe' Sapien with the same measure of worry and fear that everyone else usually did. Not only did he look less than human with smooth, scaly, amphibious blue-green skin, large, black, bulbous eyes, nostrils but no nose, and gills at his cheeks but he was also psychic and highly intelligent and it required a lot of effort to keep anything from him. Now Clay just accepted him with the same ease he did Hellboy, ever grateful that Abe was at least, like Hellboy, on their side.

"Wait a minute," Hellboy grumbled as he frowned down at the agent with a look of suspicion, "you hate mushrooms."

"I don't hate them it's not like they've done me any harm...yet, I just don't like the taste of them," Clay retorted defensively.

Hellboy's yellow stare flickered over to Abe. "Did he take girl Myers out for pizza?" he queried dubiously.

Abe nodded calmly as he lowered his webbed hand. "I think as some form of trade off, right Agent Clay?" he queried almost helpfully.

"Guys quit prying," Clay compelled them as he flustered slightly. 'The things a man has to do for a paycheque,' he thought in irritation.

"Pry more Abe," Hellboy commanded as he gave Clay a look of irritation, "I want to know more about zombie girl."

"So pry with her brother then," Clay retorted dryly. "Come on, you're just sore because I didn't take you for pizza."

Hellboy's scowl deepened as Clay unwittingly struck a nerve. "You know for someone just back to work it's nice that you have time for pizza," he grumbled childishly before he finally stepped back.

"Did I come at a bad time?"

Three sets of eyes flickered to the young woman who had just pushed open the door to the library. Hellboy and Abe had naturally sensed her presence outside though only Abe had been certain who it was. Liz Sherman looked at the uncomfortable Clay pointedly before her curious brown eyes turned up to Hellboy. "Okay what did I miss?" the raven haired woman queried in a serious tone. "Everyone out there seems on edge and I heard Myers got injured, is he alright?"

"He's fine, the squirt just got a scratch on the arm," Hellboy muttered.

"And you're back Clay?" Liz quipped as her imposing stare fell Clay's way.

"Yeah he's a pizza boy now," Hellboy sneered.

Liz's expression turned quizzical as it remained on Clay as she waited for an explanation.

"I think it's time for me to go," Clay murmured as he stepped away from the wall. He headed to the door and Liz politely stepped out of his way.

"So, three questions," Liz said calmly once the agent was gone, "why is Clay back, where is Embry, and what happened tonight?"

Hellboy let out a weary sigh. "We had some fun in the park is all," he retorted sardonically. "How about we go to mine and talk about it over some pamcakes?"

Liz gave him a faint smile as she shook her head. "It had better be interesting Red."

* * *

 _Oh this was a tough write! I loved Agent Clay, there should've been more Agent Clay but in saying that he is a minor character in the greater scheme of things, which made it tough to write him faithfully! Obviously I'm adding some of my own thing here and trying to imagine a Clay post almost dying (yep in this fic Clay only died briefly)._

 _Anyway please read and review!_


	4. Chapter 3- A New Sheriff in Town

Michael van Rossum eyed the non-distinct grey building marked as 'Waste Management' with a measure of scorn. The current headquarters for the B.P.R.D it had been, for many months now, a persistent thorn in his side but only now was he seeing it in person. When one had an impending apocalypse threatening one had to consider all the potential resources at hand.

Once his retinas were successfully scanned the iron gates finally creaked open to grant Michael entry into a world where demonology met bureaucracy in an unhealthy mix. He knew it as a failed attempt to keep Hellboy and Abe Sapien from the public eye as well as downplaying all things supernatural. Now, according to his sources, one of its own agents had a sibling with the gift to raise the dead who had been showing as much subtly as Hellboy. Michael sneered slightly at the thought, raising the dead was anything but a gift. It was unnatural and unholy, evil even and he couldn't fathom how a seemingly ordinary human could do it. He had already decided that she had to have more in common with Hellboy than one of the bureau's own agents.

Michael stopped at the main doors, flashing his ID tiredly at the guards on duty. They both gave the six feet tall blonde the same look of awe and fear before nodding him into the building where the fumbling director stood waiting to greet him. Michael looked at Director Manning with a barely concealed disgust, his steely grey eyes almost piercing right through the balding man as he looked him up and down.

"Welcome Mr van Rossum," Thomas Manning greeted politely as he extended out a hand.

Michael accepted the hand with an empty smile before giving it a firm shake. "Afternoon Mr. Manning."

Manning had not even been given a day's notice about the government agent's arrival. The claim had been that he had important information to share but Manning was quite certain the agent had come to scorn as well. Michal van Rossum was high up in the shadowy side of the government, high above the B.P.R.D and its director, and Manning knew if Michael felt the need to lower himself to granting the bureau his presence it was for no good reason.

"Is there somewhere we can talk?" Michael queried in a clipped, cold voice.

Manning nodded before gesturing for the taller man to follow him. He led the way down the secret dropping floor into the thick of the bureau where he hoped against hope that he might get his superior safely to his office without a run in with the likes of Hellboy. It took ten minutes and bustling past a few agents but to his relief they managed it.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Manning quipped politely as he stepped behind his desk and took a seat on the aged, black, leather chair.

Michael shook his head as he eyed the office with the same measure of distaste he had looked at Manning with. "Let's just get to the point," Manning said wearily as he refrained from sitting. "There has been a development in Peru, a rather disturbing find in an Incan temple."

Manning knew better than to look intrigued and it was all he could do to avoid showing his unease before Michael. Instead he looked up to the blonde attentively, silently willing him to continue.

"It seems this particular temple really was used to house something not quite mortal," Michael confessed. "Honestly Manning if I had any other choice I wouldn't be here but the supernatural is the bureau's field of expertise and my superiors are convinced your members are possibly the only ones who might be able to control this. Admittedly the success with Rasputin and preventing the emerging of the Ogdru Jahad does go in your favour but matters of late concerning the public eye and now a girl who can raise the dead does not." He arched a blonde eyebrow as he looked down at Manning with the same disapproval of a general who had caught his soldier failing to clean his gun properly. "I trust the girl is contained?"

"Woman," Manning corrected with a slightly defensive look, "Embry Myers and she is with the bureau, our own Agent Clay brought her in four days ago." He neglected to say that Embry had left on several occasions since to run errands and refused to sleep in the bureau although she claimed to be contemplating the offer of a room.

"Is she contained?" Michael repeated.

"She's not a prisoner," Manning said, still defensive, "but she is proving to be a useful agent."

Michael's frown deepened. "She raised the dead in a public park and it does not sound like it was intentional, that is not someone we want as an agent, that is someone we want kept from the public eye permanently. It is a dangerous power to have, bad enough I still hear reports of Elizabeth Sherman not being fully integrated as an agent. We let that slide but no more Manning. Our latest problem is too serious to be left in incapable hands, which is why I will be staying to supervise our response to it."

"Response to what?" Manning queried impatiently as he stood up.

"The wolves in the park were a hint of it," Michael explained calmly, "Marchosias is their leader, a demon described as a Marquis as Hell. Seems your friend Hellboy isn't the only thing the other side has seen fit to curse us with. The wolves are not unique, there have been reports all over the area, minor incidents that if unconnected just seem like unusual bouts of supernatural activity, something I know you're getting quite used to but connect the dots and a terrifying picture begins to form. Sounds of trumpets no one can explain, earthquakes beginning with the sound a terrible crack as if something was broken and it echoed across the land, as if more than the earth itself was torn asunder. Now a temple in Peru where the inner walls were painted in blood and the giant body of a horse mummified in time was found, the huge tomb of its rider now bones of bronze and one name carved there- War. For it is a name you see Manning, the name of a horseman but something was missing from the temple, something taken or unleashed."

"What do you mean?" Manning queried warily as his fear finally slipped into his voice.

"A secret known to a very rare few of us, handed down through the centuries, a terrible knowledge to have and protect that has evidently become known to the worst kind of people. The four horsemen are not just metaphors in a book but very real beings, kept separate for centuries, they were defeated one by one for united they would have been invincible. Once defeated their spirits were severed from their bodies and imprisoned. One in the north, one south, one east and one west, the burden of all four corners of the earth with the knowledge that should they ever be freed and united the end of the world would be upon us."

"And now one is free?" Manning queried shakily, doubting every word of it as he did.

Michael nodded sombrely. "Free and seeking a host if he has not already got one, they need hosts you see."

"So you want our help on this then?" Manning asked weakly. "What lead do you have?"

"I have agents seeking out the other temples but it does not look good," Michael confessed. "Something drew the wolves here and the other demons, I do not know if it is Hellboy they seek or another or something else entirely but there is something in the area they want and I intend to find it first. I will utilise Hellboy, Abraham Sapien and Elizabeth Sherman to this end, and the agents. First though I would meet with this Miss Myers and evaluate her skills and potential danger."

"Right, well er...when would you like that arranged for?" Manning queried with a nervous look.

"Right now," Michael answered icily.

Manning sighed; of course it would be right now when he was unsure where she was. "Let me find her then," he offered as he headed round to the door. He was unsurprised when Michael followed after him.

* * *

Embry Myers was out on duty with the entire crew, heading to the swimming pool of all places where some kids who had sneaked in had supposedly met a grisly end. She sat up front in one of the waste management vans beside the driver, her brother John.

"So have you thought anymore about staying in the bureau?" John pried. "You know it's okay if you don't, I don't." John hadn't spoken much with Embry since the incident in the park mainly because she wouldn't speak to him and because it was hard to get her alone in the bureau. She had played civil with Manning and the bureau for four days now though it was obvious she was losing her patience with Agent Marble watching her like a hawk.

When Embry failed to answer John glanced over at her. She was sitting staring out the window at the dark brown sky whilst fidgeting with her pendants with her right hand, wrapping the chains about her fingers repeatedly. In that instance John was reminded of Liz's therapeutic rubber bands and how she twanged them against her wrist as a form of relaxation. "You know," he said softly, "you should talk to Liz more she...well she's had similar experiences to you." He gave a faint smile that vanished at the cold glare his sister gave him.

"Did her father beat and abuse her because he thought she was possessed by the devil?" Embry queried sarcastically. "And did her family abandon her to a mental asylum that favoured illegal practices such as shock therapy because they thought she was mad?" she continued in a voice purposely light and cheerful.

"Not quite," John murmured with a sorrowful expression before he turned his stare back to the road. "Her family died in a fire she caused unintentionally, she went to the asylum after. She went in and out of it voluntarily for a while; she wanted to find a way to control the fire."

"Are you suggesting I go back to the asylum to learn how to control my special talent?" Embry queried bitingly. "You know, the talent you didn't even believe in?"

"No," John protested as the large swimming pool complex loomed into view. Two storeys tall it was an old, brick building that had survived for decades now, barely changing on the outside John imagined its business came from being the only swimming pool in town.

"Good because it burned down," she snarled.

John sighed. "I just thought it would be good for you to speak to someone who could understand a little of what you went through."

"Ease your conscience would it if I found a girlfriend to plait hair and share mental problems with?"

"No," John confessed as he finally stopped the van, "nothing is ever going to ease my conscience. I didn't believe what you were going through and I screwed up as a brother, badly. Now I have you back in my life I'm going to try to make amends whether you think I can or not."

Embry did not bother with a reply; instead she opened the door and slipped out of the van. John got out of his side and opened the side door of the van to release Hellboy who was trying a little too hard to pretend he hadn't heard anything. There was another waste management van already parked outside the place and vacant, its occupants- Agent Marble, Liz, and Abe- had evidently already entered the building.

They entered the main doors, which had already been opened with the alarm silenced. Agent Marble and the others stood inside waiting at the reception desk under the green glow of the emergency exit lights.

"Any chance we're getting to ride the slides?" Hellboy queried hopefully as he glanced to the left where the slides were visible, silent and still in the darkness.

"No chance Red," Liz chided as she readied her Glock 22.

"Do you really need extra firepower?" Embry queried dryly as she eyed the gun curiously.

Liz nodded calmly. "My fire comes with a cost, I tend to black out after I use it," she confessed. She and Abe were dressed all in black blending into the shadows even more; Liz was also wearing a bulletproof vest with B.P.R.D on the right breast pocket in white letters. She eyed Embry's less than appropriate torn jeans, sky blue vest top and long, open, chunky, cream cardigan with mild amusement. She understood it, having your toes dipped in but never fully submerging yourself, she had been the same way with the bureau for a long time herself after all but it hadn't helped her and she could see that it wasn't helping Embry much.

"Let's go," Agent Marble ordered as he gave Embry an open look of scorn, "main pool according to the one survivor."

"There's always one," Hellboy mused with a smile as they started walking.

As they rounded a corner Embry felt her head tingle and she shut her eyes and winced before raising her fingertips to her temples.

"Something wrong?" John queried as he gave his sister a look of concern.

Embry opened her eyes, fixing her stare just to the right of Marble. "A few people have drowned here over the years," she murmured dryly.

Marble grumbled a curse as his eyes darted about with unease. Of course he couldn't see anything but now the shadows had a more sinister quality to him and he was certain the air had turned colder.

"You're kinda freaky sometimes girl Myers," Hellboy joked as he grinned down at her.

"Can I please have a new nickname?" she retorted woefully as they started to walk down the stairs.

"I was thinking of zombie girl," Hellboy confessed, "but Clay said that was unfair."

"It is a little bit," Embry murmured.

Abe held up a webbed hand, halting the party as they reached the doors leading to the main pool. "Allow me," he insisted as he stepped up to the doors and pressed his palm against the right one.

The group waited impatiently for a couple of minutes as Abe tried to sense things within.

"There's a presence," he informed them, "powerful, quick and old, very old, it's hard for me to get a read."

"And the kids?" Marble asked gruffly.

"Five," Embry answered frostily as she gave the doors a serious stare, "and they're all dead."

Marble suppressed a shudder whilst Hellboy nudged John and jested, "your sister got all the cool genes of the family squirt."

John just rolled his eyes and raised his gun in preparation.

"That's all I can get," Abe confessed forlornly as he lowered his palm and reached for the metal handle. "Everyone ready?"

"Let's get on with it," Hellboy answered impatiently.

Abe pushed down the handle and pushed the door inwards. There were two pools- the diving pool and the main swimming pool, both lit by the white glow from the full moon seeping in through the windows that lined the top of the walls. The diving pool was perfectly still whilst the main pool had a few ripples all from one area near the deep end where the water had a dark mist about it and several forms bobbing in it.

"I guess I'd better find our friend," Abe mused as he unfastened his breathing apparatus and pushed up the goggles before discarding both on the floor. "I do hate chlorine though," he lamented as he stepped in the shallows of the pool.

"Be careful," Liz cautioned as she scanned the pool warily.

It was as Abe moved to the deeper end of the pool and started to swim that John saw the shadow rising up and moving fast towards the aquatic man. "Shit that's big!" he shouted as he readied his gun.

"Abe watch out!" Hellboy yelled as he took aim with the Samaritan and fired.

Everything became a chaotic and terrifying blur as the water churned and bubbled as if boiling before several dark, jagged tentacles shot out of it. One grabbed Marble by his ankles pulling him screaming to the water whilst another seized Hellboy about his waist and a third just missed John.

BANG! BANG! Hellboy shot the tentacle about him clean through, severing it in two resulting in an inky blood splashing everywhere before the limp, stubbed tentacle sank back into the water.

BANG! BANG! Liz and John both concentrated at shooting on the shadowy body beneath the waters whilst glancing about every so often for tentacles.

There was a loud splash as Marble hit the water before his screams became gargles. Embry ran to the edge of the pool with a look of horror, her mouth parting in an o shape as she paled and jerked back. Her head immediately started pounding at the sight below the waters. Down there were victims of all ages from over the years of this pool, unknowing and unwitting sacrifices to the water demon that gnashed its teeth at Abe as it tried and failed to grasp him in its tentacles.

Marble was going to drown or be eaten, Embry knew it and she also knew that she could not deal with being haunted by his angry spirit. She sucked in a breath and sank to her knees at the edge of the deep end of the pool before reaching her palms down to the waters.

John shouted a protest at his sister before a tentacle distracted him.

BANG! BANG!

The creature squealed in pain under the water as one of Hellboy's bullets cut through its torso. Abe watched it writhe with a fascinated horror even as he searched for a way through its tentacles to get to Marble. He had only one weapon to use against it, a grenade, and he knew he couldn't as it would mean the death of Marble.

The hands came without warning, at least twenty pairs of ghostly hands that almost seemed to glow green in the water, they came out of nothingness to grasp at the beast. Marble almost lost his sanity when he saw them through a watery vision, they weren't attached to anything!

"Shoot it now!" Embry yelled just as a tentacle upset her balance and sent her splashing into the pool.

For a moment the woman drifted, limp in the water as she sank, bypassing ghostly hands and tentacles before she became level with Marble and their gazes locked. His brown eyes burned with hate for her as she sank past him, down and down to the ghostly figures at the bottom reaching through the dark waters not for the beast but for her, the one who could see them properly, the only one who had noticed them for years. Her head pounded as a full blown migraine surged through it and she almost blacked out.

BANG! BANG! Two bullets went clean through the demon's skull. The demon, a monstrosity part fish, part octopus and part human finally died with several screams of pain. Its tentacles became limp and Marble was free to swim for the surface just as Abe grabbed Embry, pulling her up and away from the ghostly forms he couldn't see. Abe had seen the ghostly hands, now mercifully gone, but that was it, he had no idea of the drowned figures below howling up at Embry's fading form in frustration.

Marble waved off Hellboy's hand with a snarl before struggling out of the pool himself. Hellboy just shrugged before turning back and plucking Embry's damp form out with ease. John rushed to her side in a panic as she started coughing up water.

"I'm fine," Embry grumbled at her brother as she pushed him back with one hand whilst her other clutched at her skull.

John looked at her in relief as he continued to kneel beside her.

"So what did we kill?" Hellboy queried curiously as he eyed the large carcass now floating on the surface of the pool.

"Ugh let the experts have fun dissecting that," Liz murmured.

"I'll call them in," Marble snapped. He was on his knees spitting up water whilst trying to banish the image of ghost hands repeating over and over in his head.

* * *

BANG! BANG! Embry turned to her door accusingly before giving a roll of her eyes. She glanced at the clock on her wall but it had stopped ticking and her vision was too blurred for her to make its number out anyway. BANG! BANG! She moved with a grunt and opened the door at last, taking care to keep the useless chain on.

"Oh God really?" she groaned up at Agent Clay. "I haven't even got a shower yet. What did you do, teleport here?"

"Well ghostly children made an impact on our latest superior," Agent Clay retorted sardonically. He gave her a small, sardonic smile before quipping, "did you enjoy your late night swim?"

Embry was still soaked from head to toe and an odour of chlorine clung to her. She had insisted on being dropped off near her house instead of going to the bureau and had John stop two blocks away from her apartment, refusing to give him her full address. It had taken her half an hour to actually reach her apartment floor as her migraine had caused several brief blackouts prompting her to stop every floor for ten minutes at a time. Once inside the safety of her squalid home she had managed to strip down to her vest top and had been in the process of taking off her jeans when Clay had arrived. Her belt was on the floor beside her soaked cardigan and boots but mercifully the jeans remained on.

Embry reached up to her still pounding skull with her right hand before waving him off with her left. "I'm sorry I have an awesome gift," she retorted sarcastically, "but can you bother me about it in the morning?"

"You assume I'm here in the middle of the night out of choice?"

Embry winced and her other hand reached up to her skull before a sigh escaped her. "No, I assume Marble made me out to be some kind of bogeyman and Manning went into his usual hysterics."

"You know as fun as these through the doorway chats are your neighbour is probably only two minutes away from calling the police, can I come in?" Clay queried calmly as he tried and failed to hide his tired impatience from his eyes.

Embry dropped her left hand to her side before looking up at Clay curiously through heavy lidded eyes. "Part of me would like to see that," she confessed with a sly smile. She lowered her right hand and pressed the door shut before unhooking the chain and reopening the door. "Welcome back to the damp and rat faeces," she murmured as she turned away and hastened over to the kitchen area. She paused as her vision flickered to black momentarily before another gasp of pain escaped her. As the pain continued to spark through her skull she gritted her teeth and forced herself to pick up the pace.

Clay watched as the woman suddenly slammed her hands against the worktop surface and doubled over with a curse. Her right hand just as quickly reached up to clutch at her brow whilst her left fumbled with the cupboard door above her. She yanked it open and looked up; squinting as she tried to spy the bottle of pills she was seeking through her blurred vision. Everything seemed edged in a golden light and was doubled in her gaze. She yanked down several boxes and bottles before discarding them carelessly. At last she found the one she wanted and started struggling with its white lid with both hands.

A sharp sensation of agony tore through Embry's skull and her vision flashed red without warning. Embry fell backwards with the shock, hitting off the breakfast bar that separated her kitchen from her living room. She slid down against it with a grunt as the lid finally came free and red and yellow pills spilled out everywhere. "Shit," she grumbled as she grasped at two and swallowed them hastily. They went down rough without water but she didn't care, she needed them now.

Clay just waited, stoic and quiet, trying not to look as awkward as he felt. He felt a small tinge of relief when Embry's fingers reached to grasp the surface of the breakfast bar before she pulled herself to her feet once more. "Don't help," she grumbled before she dragged herself round it and staggered wobbly towards her grey, lumpy couch.

"Wouldn't want to undermine you," he retorted calmly.

"Wouldn't want to risk a flashback you mean," she replied hotly, "stay away from the witch, she conjures ghosts."

"Well according to Marble you do and Abe didn't really dispute it either but I'm wearing my gloves so at least it won't be mine you conjure."

"Those ghosts helped Marble, should've just let the asshole die but then knowing my luck I'd have to suffer his asshole ghost," Embry lamented.

"Are your headaches connected to the ghosts?" Clay pried as he watched her curiously

Embry shrugged at the question. "Maybe," she retorted guardedly. "Anyway, can you tell Manning I won't go Charles Dickens on him so he can calm the hell down and leave me in peace."

"I could but I'm trying to get back in the good books, remember? Besides, it's not Manning who wants you back at the bureau, it's his superior."

"New sheriff in town huh? Well good for him but I don't care, my skull is pounding and I just want to sleep, in my own place."

"I'm sure the bureau could offer you a nice, comfortable bed."

Embry looked up at Clay and shook her head as she swung her legs round on the sofa and stretched out on it. "It's not happening."

"You know Mr van Rossum didn't exactly ask, in fact he was more for the send a team to drag you back approach."

"And Manning talked him out of it for PR reasons?" Embry queried sardonically as she rested her head back against a cushion. "How sweet."

"Me and Myers did actually," Clay pointed out defensively. "Myers got quite angry about it, first time I've heard that kid raise his voice, doesn't really suit him."

"And what did you say?" Embry demanded.

"That if you were going to be defensive better they lost just me than a whole team."

Embry turned so that her chin was now resting on the arm of the sofa and she was facing Clay. "And they didn't count you as a loss?"

"Don't get cute," Clay replied with a frown.

"How about I get defensive?" she retorted tauntingly.

"I'd like to believe you really trust me and won't for that reason but you're lying on your couch clutching at your skull like it's about to implode, I don't think you can get defensive."

Embry frowned at him even as she winced with pain. "You got me pizza so I don't hate you but you are trying to get me to go back to a bureau I don't really like to get yelled at when I have a migraine, so I also think you're a prick."

"Thanks, can I remind you that this isn't personal, I'm just doing my job."

Embry didn't retort, instead she rolled over and shut her eyes with another groan of pain. Hearing footsteps, her eyes snapped open and her watery vision rolled up to Agent Clay, now standing over her.

"Do you need help?" Clay queried politely.

"No, it'll pass," she murmured.

"Can I stay until it does? Since I have no desire to get yelled at until morning."

"Long as you don't invite anyone else over."

"I won't but will you come back to the bureau when your headache passes?"

Embry smiled up at him. "It must be terrible having your job, running after me with the constant threat of unemployment. What did you do to get the shit?"

"I died," he answered flatly. "Between the time I had to take off to recover and the experience being considered traumatic there is a feeling that perhaps I can't be a field agent anymore."

"Well that's unfair, if John can do it anyone can."

Clay glanced behind him before occupying a wooden chair half-buried beneath colourful cushions with tassels and a tie-dye rug with small silver discs on its edges. "So will you come back to the bureau?"

"Sure," Embry grumbled as she shut her eyes, "but remember your promise, I won't be a prisoner."


	5. Chapter 4- Morning People

Michael van Rossum eyed the young woman seated across from him with open scorn. She eyed him back with disinterest as she drummed her nails along the desk. Michael thought it might be bravado; she hadn't exactly been pleased to be persuaded into this room with him. It was one of the Bureau's many interview rooms though several dubbed it an interrogation room, there was no glass looking into it, no trick mirror, no cameras and only one steel door to grant entry and exit. The blonde supposed that just maybe Embry Myers held a hidden upper hand and hadn't come in alone but it was impossible for him to tell.

"Are you afraid we're not alone in here?" Embry quipped with a mocking smile.

Michael purposely kept his face calm before he answered coolly, "no." Was she fishing or could she sense his concern?

It was just after half seven in the morning, too early for Embry's liking but Clay's pleas to help him save whatever career he had left to save had made her give in to meeting Michael van Rossum sooner rather than later. The young woman had been pleasantly surprised not to awaken to find half the Bureau at her door ready to drag her back. It had helped in her decision to come back to the Bureau with Clay in the end but only after she had washed and changed. Donning a pair of crimson tights, ripped denim shorts, a turquoise top with gold discs at the collar, tasselled, brown cowboy boats and an array of necklaces and bracelets, she had made quite the impression on Mr van Rossum already.

The blonde wouldn't admit to it but after seeing John and learning what he could about Embry he had expected a young woman with John's milky pale skin and dark hair clad in black and probably favouring a more gothic style, one which would suit her macabre talents. Sure he had been stereotyping with that but Elizabeth Sherman did play into that look more than a little and Embry had had a lonely and disturbed childhood, it was hard to imagine her adapting a carefree and colourful persona.

"Miss Myers," he addressed her carefully, "as I've explained I'm here to oversee an important investigation that seems to have taken focus in this city. An issue which cannot be jeopardised by the Bureau being distracted by other matters."

"Matters like me?" she quipped with a tight smile as her right hand moved up to fiddle with a silver feather and jade stone pendant.

"You raised the dead in a park, several members of the public were involved, and then you conjured ghost children in the pool putting our agents at risk."

Embry rolled her blue eyes at this. "I did not conjure them they were already there," she retorted moodily, "and Agent Marble was put at risk by the giant tentacle monster that dragged him into the pool, or did he leave that part out?"

"At any rate you possess a very dangerous and seemingly unstable power," Michael continued smoothly, "one which I cannot risk the public becoming exposed to."

"You have no right to contain me," Embry said warningly as her eyes narrowed slightly.

"On the contrary I have every right," he answered icily. "It is my job to protect this country against threats of supernatural origin through whatever means necessary."

Embry dropped her hands into her lap and fixed a frosty stare upon Michael. "So far I have only helped this Bureau without obligation," she retorted sharply.

"Yes Miss Myers and how is it that you happened to stumble upon an investigation into a hotel party gone wrong? What cause had you to be at that scene at that particular moment in time?"

"The dead call to me."

"All the time? From any distance? That must be maddening," he said dismissively as he clasped his palms together on the desk.

Embry shrugged. "It is what it is."

"Manning wants you for an agent but the Bureau is weighted down by rebellious, unstable agents as it is. You've already risked exposure with your power on multiple occasions and your help towards the Bureau seems to come more on a whim than out of loyalty."

"How about I help for coin? Same as everyone else," she retorted dryly.

"I think it would be better all round if you were properly contained and acknowledged as the potential threat you are but," he added swiftly before the woman could interrupt, "I am in the minority with that opinion. Manning believes your power could be very useful, your brother is more than willing to vouch for you and that detestable demon is most insistent that you remain part of the team. That all being said, unlike Manning I will accept no half measures on this nor will I turn a blind eye to the possibility of you becoming more of a hindrance than a help. If you are a member of this Bureau it's full-time, the Bureau is not a youth club to attend when it pleases you, and if you are not a member you will still remain of interest to the Bureau and I will insist that you stay close as a matter of national security."

"I'm not staying here," Embry answered bluntly.

"Whether you're a team member or a supernatural presence to be contained is of little consequence to me," he retorted carelessly, "either way you will stay under the Bureau's watchful eye. Once you decide if you are to be an agent or a point of interest then we will decide how best to keep an eye on you."

Embry bristled at his words. "You have no right," she hissed out angrily.

"As I have already stated I have every right and given your reputation for displaying your powers publicly I feel I am being more than generous to you with my conditions."

Embry finally stood up from the table. "You're an asshole," she snarled down at him.

"Probably to some," he retorted, still irritatingly unfazed, "but what I do I do for the safety of this country and everyone in it. Prove me wrong Miss Myers, swear to me that you always have some form of control over your powers, that you don't sometimes still hear that baby crying whether you want to or not."

Embry visibly twitched at the blonde's words. For a moment she was frozen before her face filled with anger and she leaned down across the table and snapped, "you bastard!" She stood upright just as quickly, turned and hastened to the door. "Let me out!" she cried out as she started banging on it with both hands in a fury. She paused just as suddenly, clenched her fists slightly and sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. She knew what Michael wanted her to do and she wasn't going to give in.

The blonde watched the woman with interest as she bowed her head and remained silent. He was a little disappointed when she didn't use any supernatural means to try and escape. He had been half-hoping for a summoned spectre to unlock the door and wondered if none came because she was controlling her power or because she simply could not summon the undead so easily. Given the reports on her odd gift so far he had to assume it was the former as she had not struggled to conjure numerous undead creatures in the park.

Silence. Michael permitted it as he continued to watch her with a thoughtful look, willing and wanting her to lose her temper and prove him right. The seconds passed by and turned to minutes. Embry remained rigid at the door, hands still clenched and a scowl on her face but she did not speak. Five minutes passed by before the woman finally broke the tense quiet. "I've played this game many times before in the asylum Mr van Rossum," she informed him frostily without looking at him, "it's nothing new."

He nodded. "I know, I believe your record was two hours, shall we try beating it?" His eyes glinted with satisfaction as he saw her pale and the first trickle of a nervous sweat slide down her brow. He gave it another ten minutes, allowing her to fear that perhaps he was serious before he finally stood up. "Are you to be an agent or a point of interest?" he demanded.

Embry swallowed hard as she contemplated her answer, agreeing to be an agent seemed too much like giving into this smug man but the alternative didn't seem any better. At least if she said she'd be an agent now she could always retract it later. "I'll be an agent," she answered grudgingly.

Michael approached the door, standing beside Embry fearlessly before he stretched out his fist and knocked it on the door three times. "All you had to was knock," he sneered. "We'll have a meeting in a couple of hours, until then you may remain in the Bureau."

The door was opened and a plain clothed security guard looked in at them warily before he stepped back to grant them exit. Embry slipped out and past him hastily, almost running up the corridor in her efforts to escape Michael van Rossum.

* * *

Embry didn't know where exactly she was going. She was highly tempted to immediately disobey van Rossum and escape the Bureau but she knew he'd have all the exits guarded and it wasn't like she knew of too many exit routes. So she paced up the corridors in a rage barely noticing how people hastened to avoid her path, looking at her with either fear or disgust as they did.

"Girl Myers!" the jovial, youthful voice caught her off guard.

Embry whipped her head round in surprise and her blue eyes widened as she saw that Red was not alone. He was calling to her from the library where he stood before Abe's tank with Liz and John.

John immediately stepped forward with a look of concern. "Embry what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Embry dismissed as she banished the grief on her face and shook her head angrily.

"What'd that prick Rossum say?" Hellboy was quick to snarl.

Embry shook her head again before she turned from them wordlessly, making a sharp turn to the right and out of sight.

John flinched when Liz gripped his right arm gently. "I'll go," she offered softly before she released him just as quickly as she had grabbed him. The dark haired pyro then hastened from the room and after the younger woman.

Liz followed Embry from a respectable distance until the woman finally chose to pause in a room of relics and artefacts. Liz recalled that usually the room was sealed up tight and wondered dryly if a friend from the other side had helped Embry gain access. Seeing the heavy steel door begin to shut Liz was quick to slip inside though she considered that she might soon regret choosing to entrap herself with the necromancer.

Embry gave the taller woman a wary look and took an instinctive step back from her. She stood in the centre of the room surrounded by bejewelled crosses, glittering pendants, open, old books, swords with gemmed handles, gilded ornaments and more, all within glass cabinets. Tattered tapestries, battered shields and weapons in ivory and ebony holders all decorated the walls. There was also a shelf of scrolls, crystal balls and dusty canopic jars and colourful glass bottles.

"Cosy in here," Liz remarked dryly as she glanced about the room curiously.

"A little crowded too," Embry retorted.

Liz eyed her carefully as she wondered if that was a jibe at herself or an implication of spirits. "Two a crowd or do we have friends I can't see?" she quipped.

Embry gave her a calm stare. "Let's just say some of these trinkets have attachments," she answered cryptically.

"Okay, well so long as nothing starts floating of its own accord I'm happy," Liz retorted with forced calm even as she glanced about nervously.

"Why did you follow me?" Embry queried as she paced about the room slowly.

"To see what was wrong or what Rossum did wrong rather."

"He gave me a choice," Embry admitted, "be a prisoner of the Bureau or just a prisoner in name." When Liz looked confused she elaborated. "That is be a danger to be contained or be an agent."

Liz smiled at this. "Ah, that I understand. It's not easy making that choice, I know. I've tried to find freedom from it all many times but honestly, it seems like I just wanted freedom from myself and that's impossible."

Embry shrugged as she started to fidget with the pendants about her neck. "Well I agreed to be an agent," she murmured.

Liz nodded, understanding that it was neither a willing nor easy decision for Embry to have made. "I can help you get some decent quarters," she offered.

Embry bristled at her words and shook her head. "No, I'm not staying here," she said stubbornly.

"It's not so bad," Liz insisted, "it just takes a while getting used to it but hey, it's free accommodations, free food, free television and if you're quick enough to beat Red there's a good amount of hot water for a shower."

"No, no!" Embry snapped angrily.

The door opened without warning and Liz looked to it mystified, expecting a spirit but instead the calm face of Agent Clay peered in. "I heard yelling," he explained, "and you know, I'm an agent, I have to react to yelling."

Liz gave him a look of exasperation before shaking her head. "Right, good timing," she murmured sardonically. She looked back to Embry warily, the woman was calm again but still tense, Liz doubted it would take much to make her snap again.

Embry looked at him angrily and hastened towards him. "You swore I wouldn't be a prisoner!" she snapped at him. "I should have never listened to you! I shouldn't have come to this shit hole!"

Clay did the wise thing and took a step back so the woman could hasten past him and charge up the corridor. He watched her go, perplexed and guilty, before turning a confused stare on Liz. "What did I miss?" he queried.

Liz sighed. "Just Rossum ruffling her feathers and making her an agent," she explained coolly. "I think it was a choice of be an agent or be contained as a threat to humanity."

"Right," Clay muttered.

"Did you really swear she wouldn't be a prisoner?" Liz pried with a curious look.

"She didn't give me much choice," Clay grumbled. He looked the way Embry had stormed off. "Should I make amends or am I liable to get attacked by an animated bed sheet?"

Liz frowned at Clay's poor attempt at humour. "Up to you," she replied calmly. She glanced about the room of artefacts and felt a moment of unease as she wondered at their unseen attachments. She moved out of the room hastily to stand by Clay. "It can't have been fun growing up with dead people plaguing you," she murmured quietly. She thought of how she had grown up weighed down by people's deaths on her own conscience. Until she had met Embry she hadn't realised one could actually be haunted by the dead. She wondered grimly in a moment of horror if very real ghosts from her past clung to her.

"No, you know I think I'll give her space," Clay retorted.

Liz nodded and shrugged off her fearful memories before heading back to Hellboy, John and Abe. She was sympathetic to the worried stare John gave her and again wondered why his relationship with Embry was so broken. "She'll be alright," she said reassuringly, "she just needs some time and space."

"What did Rossum say to her?" Hellboy demanded.

"That's her news to tell you," Liz retorted calmly.

"Where is she now?" John queried.

Liz shrugged. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

John sighed as he glanced to the open doorway and wondered if he should try and find her. It seemed uncaring not to look but Liz did say Embry needed space and the last thing he wanted was Embry shouting at him again. He settled for occupying a seat in front of Abe's tank and trying not to look morose.

* * *

"Do you like fish or are you watching them because there's nothing good on t.v this early?"

Embry bristled at the entirely too happy voice and stood upright from the fish tank that had occupied her attention for the past ten minutes to glare at the newcomer. She didn't know what annoyed her most- the fact that he had startled her, the fact that he was disturbing her peace, the fact that he was mocking her or the fact that he was daring to be this happy this early in the morning when she was tired and pissed off.

The newcomer was a young man in his early thirties who looked at her with an easygoing smile that stretched up to his crystal blue eyes. He stood in a casual manner, hands in the pockets of his denim blue jeans, brown blazer hanging open to reveal a partially buttoned, dark blue, wool waistcoat that covered most of the wrinkles of his pale shirt and hid the crookedness of his silk, sapphire blue tie. Over his waistcoat he also wore a laminated pass held in a plastic card holder hanging from a white ribbon marked with B.P.R.D repeated in bold, red font. The pass looked like an ID card though it was difficult for Embry to tell from their current distance.

The man's smile widened as he spied the ire in the woman's violet-blue gaze. "And I seem to have offended you before we've even been introduced, sorry," he said hastily in an accent that had a twang of New York to it, "I was just trying to make small talk, thought I could ease myself into an introduction more smoothly that way but apparently not." He paused and ruffled his spiked blonde hair with his right hand and gave a sheepish laugh. "You know I'm not normally such a jackass before ten," he added humorously.

Embry raised her dark eyebrows at this. "Just after ten then?" she queried wryly.

The man looked at her with surprise before he laughed again. "Right, set myself up for that one, didn't I?" He stepped up towards her, halting when he saw how she tautened and her gaze turned wary again. He extended a hand harmlessly towards her but was careful to keep the gap. "I'm Agent Nevin Cochrane."

"Not Cement or Onyx or Quartz then?" Embry queried sardonically. She felt an instant distain having long tired of the Bureau's agents though she had to give this one points for avoiding blending in with the penguin suits.

"Huh?" Nevin blinked back at the woman with a look of puzzlement.

"That's been the theme of agents in this place so far," she said dismissively as she glanced over her shoulder at the fish tank, "all black and white suits too, some sort of irony to that I'm sure."

"Ah, well I'm not a native agent, I'm part of your southerly neighbours in the New Mexico Bureau branch." His flashy smile widened. "I know, the accent fooled you, right?" Nevin lowered his hand at last, accepting that Embry wasn't going to take it.

Embry didn't know why she was surprised to hear the Bureau had more than one base, of course it did, van Rossum had hardly dropped from the sky. "I see, less strict dress code closer to the border then?"

Nevin glanced down at his attire. "I guess so, beats looking like I'm dressed for a funeral all the time, puts a downer on things, don't you think?"

Embry shrugged. "In this line of work maybe it's better being dressed for death."

"Oh dear you're really not a morning person are you Miss..."

"Myers," she retorted coolly.

"Can I make amends for disturbing your fish gazing by getting you a coffee?" Nevin pried.

Embry gave him a hard look, scrutinising him from top to bottom as she wondered at his motives. She figured he didn't recognise her name but then if he was new here why should he? She pondered how quickly his sunny personality would dim towards her when he learned what she was infamous for around here. Still, she had no money and the Bureau's coffee tasted thick, lukewarm and bitter, maybe she could seize an opportunity here to get something better.

"That depends," Embry retorted calmly as she crossed her arms, causing her bracelets to jingle as she did, "on where you're buying the coffee from."

Nevin's gaze brightened at this. "Alright, well I'm only here but I'm guessing from that the local coffee ain't too great. Okay, how about you choose where we get it from? One thing though, it would be poor manners if I didn't introduce myself to everyone else first, can you wait until I do that?"

Embry shrugged. "Sure, I'll get back to the fish gazing while you do."

Nevin chucked at this and gave a nod. "I'll see you soon Miss Myers."

Embry watched as the newcomer agent walked off from the lobby area he had found her in, walking to a set of steel double doors on the right before swiping his pass for clearance. A light on the wall turned green and the doors clicked free to grant him entry. Once he was gone from sight Embry turned her attention back on the fish tank. It was salt water and served as décor, sitting in the centre of a round lobby area that might have almost been welcoming with its few red cushioned chairs and dark mahogany benches if it weren't for the steel floor, walls and ceiling and unflattering, white, square panelled lights that hummed from above. There was a reception post to the left behind wire mesh and glass, currently unguarded as it was a nine to five post and, in Embry's opinion, rather pointless, any visitors usually came in accompanied or already knew where they were going.

Feeling a headache approaching, she pushed her forehead against the cool glass and let out a soft sigh as she watched the bubbles rise up and down steadily and listened to the gentle hum of the filter. It was soothing looking at the fish dart back and forth lazily in a display of vibrant colours although it was the pair seahorses that held Embry's attention. One was a bright buttercup yellow whilst the other was a more subdued, dark brownish- red. They moved quickly, darting back and forth and up and down in an excitable manner.

Embry tried to keep her focus on the seahorses even as her headache worsened, tightening at the back of her skull and beginning a steady pound at the front that caused her eyes to water. She winced and pulled back from the glass to push her fingertips up into the skin of her skull. In desperation she began to massage the sore points but it was to no avail.

She dropped her fingers to the pockets of her shorts and fumbled in her pockets, bypassing keys and charms. No painkillers. She cursed just as a set of doors slid open and her brother appeared through them. John looked to Embry with instant worry before he hurried over to her. "Are you alright? What happened with van Rossum?" he blurted out.

"I'm fine," she grumbled as she waved him off with one hand, "I just have a headache." She winced and her eyes squinted as they watered with pain.

"It looks like more than that," John said with concern. He wilted slightly at the look of anger he got in answer. "Look I can get you some painkillers," he said as he gestured back the way he had come, "I've learn to keep a stash handy."

"Stash?" she echoed sardonically. "You an addict now John?"

John rewarded her with a frown. "No, I just get in a lot of fights in case you haven't noticed." He turned and started walking back the way he had come, pausing a couple of times to glance over his shoulder to make sure his sister was following.

Embry followed behind her brother with a subdued reluctance. She was losing the energy to keep her rage going and pain was taking priority over pride. It lasted until they headed down a corridor and met Agent Clay and Hellboy.

"Hey I knew you'd find her squirt," Hellboy enthused with a grin.

"You don't look so good," Agent Clay observed as he glanced past John to his pale but sweating sister.

"Bad reaction to liars I guess," she snapped back.

Hellboy laughed at this. "What a strange thing to say, van Rossum put you in a bad mood? I hear he's an asshole."

Embry kept her glower on Clay as she snarled, "he's not the only one around here."

"What am I supposed to say?" Clay retorted with an exasperated look. "Sorry you're feeling sore over something I don't even know the details of? I mean you're not exactly in chains or under armed guard here, so how did I lie to you?"

"Oh very good," Embry retorted sharply with a scalding look, "so it's up to how we interpret the word prisoner then, is it?"

"Clay what is she talking about?" Hellboy queried as he glanced down at his friend with a look of suspicion.

The dark haired agent shrugged. "I got no idea."

Embry shut her eyes and clenched her fist as she forced herself to swallow down a scream of rage and agony. Her headache had turned into a migraine again and it was hard to focus as her ears filled with a ringing noise and her skull seemed to shrink against her brain.

There was a sudden tremble in the air and John, Clay and Hellboy all simultaneously felt a brushing of cold air against their flesh as if something was stroking it. From down the hall there came a startled scream prompting Hellboy to turn and bolt down it rapidly yelling, "Liz!" as he did.

Embry felt her entire body quiver as she tried to resist the pain and subude the power that had escaped from her. She hissed out, "shit," and opened her eyes again, wincing as the light seemed to burn through them and into her skull. "John I really need those tablets now," she grumbled.

John, who was looking the way Hellboy had run with surprise and concern, didn't seem to hear his sister's plea. His dark blue eyes widened when he heard a startled cry that sounded like Liz again. He tugged out his gun and ran not even bothering to consider that if was something Hellboy couldn't handle he probably couldn't either.

John made it to the library Liz occupied with Abe, in his tank, just in time to see the spectre that had startled Liz and caused Hellboy to freeze up in horror. As John hurried into the room with his Heckler & Koch USP raised and ready for action the ghost began to fade away. It looked to John first and offered a faint, warm smile that should have been consoling but somehow chilled John to the core.

"Father," Hellboy croaked out as the figure dissipated. Hellboy let out a cry of frustration as he rushed forward to where the granddad like figure of Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm had momentarily stood. He rushed his beefy red hands through the air in vain whilst shouting, "come back!"

"I'm sorry," the tired, strained voice of Embry called out as she staggered through the doorway with Clay close in her tracks. "This is why it's a curse, if people don't fear or hate what I can do they grow frustrated with it, become angry because I conjure ghosts though even though I don't mean to and then I can't call them back as regularly as they'd like."

Hellboy turned to the girl with an open mouth as he struggled over what to say. She was right, he was angry, angry to have his heart jerked without warning like that, to feel guilt wash over him and almost drown him and yet he believed it wasn't her fault or intention.

"Red," Liz interjected softly as she calmed from her own alarm, "you know yourself you can't always control the powers you have, it's no different for Embry."

"No," he said hoarsely as he looked to the space where the ghost of his father had stood. "Then was it really him?"

"That's a little more complicated," Embry admitted as she leaned against a bookshelf for support, pressing both palms against the leather as she did.

"I could sense the professor from it," Abe remarked as he looked at her with curiosity. The sudden appearance of the ghost had startled him too though he didn't wish to admit it.

Embry nodded as she gritted her teeth and swallowed down a yelp of pain.

"Hey Myers how about those pain killers?" Clay suggested.

John snapped out of his own trance and looked to his sister apologetically. He felt a rush of guilt as well, he had forgone Embry for Liz. "I'll go get them," he murmured. He holstered his gun and hurried from the room.

Clay gripped Embry's right hand, shaking his head as he felt her tense against him. "Come on, you need to sit," he said, "you can yell at me later when your headache's gone." He tugged her from the bookshelf and guided her to a hard, brown, leather chair.

"How could anyone call this comfortable?" Embry complained as she sagged into it.

"Next time we'll have cushions for you," Clay teased.

Embry pointed at him accusingly with one finger. "You don't get to tease," she scolded him, "you're very much in the bad books."

Clay glanced about him and without missing a beat answered, "I guess I'm in good company then."

Embry followed his gaze to the many bookshelves and cursed, "ah shit."

John returned a few minutes later with a bottle of water and a box of tablets. He popped and offered two up to Embry who had curled up into a ball in the chair and had burrowed her face into the corner of it to hide the light. She winced and squinted as the lighting of the room irritated her pain. "I need the dark," she muttered before swallowed the tablets and burrowing her head back against the chair.

"Okay," John sympathised, "I'll get the lights." He looked to the others questioningly and said, "anyone else mind the dark?"

Hellboy snorted at this. "Just you squirt, don't worry I'll hold your hand if the boogeyman comes." He snickered loudly at his own jibe in an attempt to banish the unease he still felt from his dead father's appearance.

John moved to the light switched and knocked the lights off putting them in the faint blue glow that came from Abe's tank.

"There's a switch there," Abe said helpfully as he swam to the far right wall and gestured to a metal bar on the wall, "pull it down and it will turn the lights off in here too."

John nodded graciously before he moved to the switch. He tugged it down and suddenly they were in darkness.

"Um you know what," Liz murmured as she looked about their surroundings with unease, "I think it's time for breakfast. She sidestepped where the ghost had been and hurried for the door.

"Hey wait Liz we can get some pamcakes together," Hellboy enthused.

"Cowards," John called after them. He shook his head when Hellboy raised a middle finger to him as he departed.

John looked about for somewhere to sit, using the light that seeped in through the ajar door to guide him. Just as he was about to occupy a chair similar to Embry's his phone rang. He tugged it out hastily to answer it before the noise could annoy his sister. It was Manning. "Hello sir," John greeted quietly.

"Myers where are you? We have a new arrival for you to come greet, get to my office quick." Manning hung up without waiting for a response.

John sighed and looked to his sister guiltily. "I've got to go," he confessed as he took a step towards her.

"Go then," she retorted to the back of the chair, "I'll be fine."

"I'll stay," Clay offered.

"Nope, don't need you," Embry responded quickly.

"No one does," Clay mused, "it's good to be so unwanted. Anyway, I'm still staying, you know if I leave you and Casper appears and I don't know about it Manning will make sorry for it."

"Whatever can you turn off the lights already, God my head stings."

Clay and John exchanged a look of concern in the dark. "Just go," Clay urged him, "Manning's not a morning person as it is."

John nodded before he departed, taking care to shut the door behind him.

"And then there were two," Clay murmured.

"Ahem," Abe piped up.

"Sorry Blue," Clay apologised, "forgot you there in the dark. Hey how's your night vision anyhow?"

"A little better than yours."

"Will you be nice and give me warning if anything unnatural decides to appear?" Clay shuddered at the memory he invoked for himself. He had almost been killed in the dark, down in the sewers where it was dank and pitch black.

"I'll let you know," Embry said, her voice still muffled by the couch. She sensed his unease and the reason for it and felt a sympathy for him despite her anger at him.

"Thanks," Clay murmured. "How's that couch?"

"Stiff and lumpy and this room is freaking cold."

"It's temperature controlled to keep the books in good condition," Abe explained.

Embry sighed miserably. "Well it makes sense but next time I take a migraine remind to find a less icy, death plagued room."

"Sure thing," Clay retorted cheerfully. He tugged off his black blazer and put it over the woman before taking up a post on the arm of the couch opposite her.

"Your blazer itches," Embry murmured tiredly.

"You're welcome," he answered.


	6. Chapter 5- Coffee

Michael van Rossum had come very quickly to the conclusion that he did not like Agent Cochrane. The man's profile had shone above the others, he was an expert demonologist and thoroughly versed in Rabbinical and Biblical teachings and fluent in Hebrew, German and Spanish. He was also well trained in firearms and physical combat. He had come on high recommendation from New Mexico to help with this horseman business. Michael, upon reading Cochrane's paperwork, had been expecting a serious, reserved and tough looking man with the neat, vanilla appearance of most agents. This plucky, happy and fashionable but preppy looking man did not meet his expectations.

When the wooden door to Manning's office opened and Agent Myers entered, Michael's ire was shifted. Everything he had learned about John Myers so far he despised. The man had a friendship with Hellboy, he was known for past flirtations with Elizabeth Sherman, he had been injured in the line of duty, hell he had almost let the Ogdru Jahad usher in the end of the world, and his sister summoned the dead!

Thomas Manning stood up from the seat he had been forced to take beside his desk and looked to Myers with a subdued relief. He been growing increasingly concerned that Agent Cochrane's perky attitude was going to send van Rossum into an early morning meltdown.

"Agent Myers," Manning greeted quickly, "meet Agent Cochrane." He gestured to the blonde who had turned his hundred watt smile on the brown haired agent.

"Nevin Cochrane," he introduced as he extended a hand. "Are you related to the Miss Myers I met earlier?"

"Miss Myers?" John repeated dumbly as he shook the hand. "Yes, right, my sister," he realised, "Embry."

"Ah so it's Embry," Nevin said as his smile widened, "and yourself?"

"John."

They released hands and John stepped awkwardly into the room, unsure where to stand.

Michael van Rossum occupied Manning's usual seat behind his desk and looked both unpleasant and unhappy as his grey glower shifted back to Nevin. He wondered, as did John and Manning, when and where exactly Nevin had met Embry and what they had discussed.

"Agent Myers, Agent Cochrane is here to help with a very serious manner," Michael explained. "One which I am reluctant to clue you or your mishmash of freaks into but alas I have no choice in the matter."

John bristled at Michael's insult but knew better than to rise to it.

"You've fought two demons now, the wolf in the park and the beast in the swimming pool," Michael remarked bluntly, "both were signs of what is to come."

"And what is that?" John pried.

"War," Nevin replied, still cheerful and smiling as he answered, "and not in the general sense but figurative I suppose, War as in the being War of the four horsemen."

John looked confused for a moment. "On a fiery red horse?" he queried.

Nevin nodded with a spark of amusement in his pale blue stare. "That's it, only the horse is mummified in Peru, unless he has another, I suppose he must otherwise he couldn't be much of a horseman. Although we're dealing with his spirit right now not his real form hmm maybe we have a spirit horse to deal with as well."

Michael frowned at Nevin's speculation. "War is on his way here," he said sharply, "the demons herald his coming."

"And we've got to find and stop him?" John guessed.

"And the others," Nevin replied.

"Others?"

"Four horsemen," Nevin said merrily, "hmm there is a bonus to it, maybe we will all finally figure out what the guy on the white horse is meant to be- Conqueror, Pestilence, Jesus?" He turned his grin on Manning and Rossum. "Wouldn't that be weird if it was Jesus? And super awkward too I'd imagine."

Michael resisted the urge to clap his hand to his face and yell obscenities at the blonde.

"Um I don't really want to fight er...Jesus," Myers piped up.

"Christ Myers it won't be...Jesus," Michael remarked sharply, realising his error with his choice of cursing. "Anyway, let's focus on the problem at hand, we only know of War being free and that's enough frankly. Myers, you, that demon freak and those other problem children you call agents are going to be on this case. That includes your sister since she's seen sense and joined us," he added crossly. He gazed up at John sternly. "Don't think this doesn't mean she will be watched, she will."

"By Agent Clay," Manning piped up. He looked to John calmly, willing the man to understand that Clay was the best peace offering he could manage and the only say Rossum had let him have on the matter.

"Watched, why?" Nevin queried with intrigue. "What can she do?"

"Talk to the dead," Manning grumbled with a look of discomfort. He turned his uneasy stare on the wall to his left behind his desk.

"And summon the dead," Michael snapped, "without warning or control."

"Interesting," Nevin enthused with another grin.

"And dangerous," Michael grumbled, "she's already risked exposure several times and we don't need anymore publicity."

"She has a handle on it," John lied as he clenched his fists slightly.

"No," Michael said frostily as he looked at John with an icy stare, "she does not but she soon will or she won't be setting foot outside these walls."

"Now, that's a bit harsh," Nevin murmured, "mastering the dead takes time I'm sure. Anyway," he tugged a tarnished brass pocket watch out of his waistcoat pocket and looked at it, "it's time for coffee I think." He ignored the dubious looks he was given as he put the watch back in its place and looked to Rossum chirpily. "Can I be dismissed?"

Michael waved him with a barely audible grumble of, "go then, the both of you."

John nodded and followed Nevin out of the office with relief.

As they left Michael snarled at Manning, "postpone that meeting, I need more than two hours before I can face those dangerous fools again."

"So John," Nevin remarked as they walked down the corridor past numerous offices of high up staff in the Bureau, "where's good for coffee in this town?"

John shrugged. "I wouldn't know, I'm not particular about it, coffee's coffee to me."

"Me too but your sister requested somewhere nice."

This stopped John in his tracks as he looked at Nevin in surprise. Nevin smiled back at him with a grin that stretched up high enough to crinkle his eyes. "Don't worry," he assured, "it's a friendly gesture that's all."

John nodded dumbly even as he started to wonder and, despite Nevin's words, worry. "She's...resting at the moment," he explained.

"Oh, will she be doing that for long?" Nevin pried.

John shrugged. "I don't know, she had a sore head, she needs to sleep it off I guess."

"Hmm." For the first time of the morning Nevin showed a look of dismay. "Alright, well when she's feeling better then." The smile was back. "I guess I'd better find my quarters."

John matched pace with him briefly until they reached the lobby with the fish tank and John turned to head back to Embry and the others. "I'll see you later Agent Cochrane," he said politely.

"Sure and please, call me Nevin."

John nodded before he walked off. He headed back to Embry, Clay and Abe who were still in silence in the dark. He shut the door hastily before the light that followed him could wake Embry and used the light of his phone to guide him to a free chair.

"Manning says you're watching her now," John said bluntly in the darkness.

"I assume you're talking to me?" Clay retorted tranquilly. "And yes, isn't that what I'm doing right now?"

"He said from now on," John answered accusingly.

Clay sighed. "Don't take a tone Myers, it could've been Marble. At any rate, this is the first I've heard, what else did you learn?"

John looked through the inky blackness in Clay's direction with surprise. He felt a slight hint of relief that Clay hadn't been discussing Embry's fate behind her back with Manning and van Rossum. "There's a new agent in town, Agent Cochrane, and van Rossum said Embry's joined us." He turned his head in Embry's direction, she made no sound sleeping and he wondered sheepishly if she might be awake secretly listening to them. "I don't know what he said or did to her," he added moodily, "but I don't think she made that choice willingly."

Clay nodded grimly in the dark. "No." He thought about how she had lived and considered that she probably wasn't better alone either.

It took only five more minutes before Clay got the expected summons to Manning and van Rossum's office. He departed without a farewell, leaving Embry to the care of her brother.

Two hours later and Embry finally stirred from her slumber with a groan. Her muscles were stiff and sore as she awoke but her migraine had mercifully receded. She awoke half-burrowed beneath Clay's blazer and pushed it off with a grunt of annoyance as she loosened her limbs and pushed herself to a seating position. She showed no fear at the darkness and no surprise when her brother called out to her.

"How are you feeling?" John queried.

"Like I slept on a lumpy couch," she retorted sardonically. She gave a yawn and stretched her arms. "I think I need a coffee."

John tensed at those words and before he could help it he blurted out, "with Agent Cochrane?"

For a moment there was silence as Embry tried to digest John's words and the realisation with it that he too had met this new agent. "Sheesh John it's a bit late for big brother to be worried about who I'm seeing for coffee," she sneered at last.

John frowned in the darkness before standing up from the chair and once more using the light of his phone to guide him, this time to the main light switch. "Can I hit the lights?" he quipped.

"Sure."

John turned them on and Embry winced at the sudden glare of light from above. "Shit that's harsh," she complained.

"The professor didn't want to have to squint in dim lighting when he read," Abe explained calmly, "some of the texts have rather small font and others are quite faded."

"Almost forgot you were there," Embry jested as she smiled over at the tank, "you're very quiet."

"Not usually," John grumbled.

Embry stood up at last and gave a final stretch. "Well, I think I need to brush my hair and find some non-wrinkled clothes, wonder if I'll be allowed home to do that," she pondered sardonically.

"What about coffee?" John quipped.

Embry pressed her hands against her hips as she looked at John and rolled her eyes disparagingly at him. "John don't concern yourself with it, I'm flat broke and as soon as Agent Cochrane learns I conjure the dead I doubt he'll be so eager to buy me a cup, I'll be going home to make some cheap, shitty instant coffee, alright?"

John filled with woe at the scorn in her voice. "I could buy you a cup that's all," he said quietly.

Embry let out a bitter chortle at this. "Sure John and then we can what, play catch up? You tell me all about your fun times here while I was getting shock therapy right until the asylum burned down with me still in it." She bristled at the memory. "I had to jump through a window to escape, what were you doing then? Saving the world from demons you didn't even believe in when I was young?"

"Embry how many times do I have to say sorry?" he queried tiredly.

"There's no number John, it will never be enough." She stormed past him and headed out the door, leaving Clay's blazer in a wrinkled heap on the chair. Angry and frustrated, she made for the main exit of the secret headquarters without bothering to stop and check with anyone if she could go, the fact was she didn't care what rules van Rossum had for her, she just wanted to be away from this place.

* * *

BANG! BANG!

Embry looked to her front door with a measure of disgust before she walked up to it wearily, kitchen knife in hand just in case. She peered through the keyhole and sighed before unlocking and opening the door, stretching her left arm up to clutch at the edge of the door with her hand. "Wow you gave me what, an hour?"

Agent Clay looked in at the young woman with a stoic expression. He was dressed in black trousers, a plain white shirt, shined, black shoes and a long, black coat that glistened with raindrops gradually being absorbed into the wool. His dark hair gleamed with damp as well and his face was pale from the cold and highlighted with sparkles of damp. In his gloved hands he held a grey cardboard cup holder that contained two steaming take away cups from Starbucks.

"van Rossum doesn't know you came here alone," Clay said calmly, "if I'd given you any longer he might have figured it out."

Embry shrugged before releasing the door. "I don't care."

"Yes you do or you wouldn't be in such a temper over him making you an agent," Clay countered. "Don't give me that look," he added hastily, "he made you an agent not a prisoner and I will do what I can to make sure they don't become the same thing. Look, Manning asked me to keep an eye on you, it was me or Marble or someone else and I didn't have to agree but I did because I gave you my word."

"Well to hell with your word, I don't need a babysitter!" she snapped angrily.

Clay sighed and shook his head. "You summoned the professor's ghost without warning," he reminded her. "You don't need a babysitter, I ain't arguing with that, but in the eyes of the Bureau you need someone. You make any other unexpected summonings without an agent nearby and van Rossum will start to consider you a threat that either needs disposed of or contained."

Embry turned away from him angrily and paced back into her grim surroundings. Clay followed after her without waiting for an invite and closed the door behind him. Stepping in to the living room area he saw a multi-coloured fabric bag with tassels and mirrors lying on the floor beside a slightly larger, battered looking rucksack.

"You packing for the agency?" Clay quipped dryly.

Embry sighed. "I've nowhere else to bloody go," she grumbled wearily as she sank into the lumpy two seater before the coffee table, "landlord's evicted me."

Clay stared down at her pityingly, she looked small all of a sudden and sad, it was the first he had seen her upset. The agent sat beside her and held the coffee cups up to her. "I didn't know what to get you," he admitted, "your brother just said you kept talking about coffee."

Embry gave a small chuckle at this. "No, he wouldn't even know that much, I like it with milk and cream and two sugars."

"Well, to be honest, I've not got that right, they're both just plain, well not really because if you ask for a plain coffee in that place they look at you like you've got the plague. Yeah, no milk or cream though." He placed the cups on the coffee table. "You finish packing everything?"

Embry nodded. "Not much to pack, you're shocked I'm sure."

"Okay, well let me make a quick phone call first and then we can go get a proper coffee before we go back." He stood up and paced down the hall before tugging out his phone to make the call.

As the phone rang Clay glanced about the grim surroundings curiously. The walls and floors were wooden and stained, the ceiling had cobwebs, the radiator in the hall was rusting, and the bedroom a door was ajar to looked unfriendly. He stared in dully at the battered looking bed with a thin, worn blanket and a pillow so flat it may as well have not existed. His dark blue eyes widened slightly as he spied a photograph stuck to the wall behind the bed. Curious, he stepped into the room as the phone was finally answered.

"Hey Myers, we're coming back soon," Clay announced, "you've got about an hour or so." He hung up and placed his phone back in his inner pocket before tugging the photograph off the wall to scrutinise it better. It was of two very young kids, pale faced and dark haired, a boy and a girl, seated side by side on a beach- the girl was holding a spade whilst the boy held a bucket. Clay knew it had to be John and Embry. He turned the photograph over- John aged 8 and Embry aged 4 was scribbled on it in fancy black font and beneath it in blue ink in a different handwriting was 'she woke a dead seagull in the sands, she's evil'.

Clay sighed, it was a sweet picture even if there was sinister message on the back. He brought it with him back to the living room and held it out to Embry. "You forgot something."

Embry looked at it and snatched it from him with a glower. "You're nosey," she complained.

"Observant," Clay corrected, "I'm observant."

Embry shrugged. "Well it's just what a wanted, a reminder of that time I summoned a dead seagull back from beach hell."

"Really?" Clay quipped sarcastically. "I was figuring it was just a nice reminder that you and John actually got along at one point. Look, you kept it this long, it obviously means something to you but I'm going to shut up about it now because I don't like the look you're giving me, is this what the coffee obsession is about? Do you need coffee to function like a nice person?"

"Maybe I just liked the idea of a normal date with a normal person," Embry grumbled sullenly as she shoved the pocket into her shorts' pocket carelessly. "FYI you are not that normal coffee date person Agent Clay, you're not normal."

"No people who hunt monsters and immortal Nazis and Russian madmen don't tend to be," he murmured. "Well wounded as I am not to be considered normal enough for your very cliched and dull fantasy of a date, can we go get coffee anyway?"

"Fine," Embry gave in grudgingly.

Embry lifted the rucksack and tasselled bag and grabbed a red parka off a coat hook before she headed out the door. She paused to give the apartment one last look of woe. "Well this is farewell then," she murmured.

"It's a shithole," Clay scorned.

"It's freedom," she retorted before closing the door. She abandoned the key in the lock and headed for the stairs.

* * *

Coffee was not quite what Clay expected. He didn't mind coffee but he preferred to take from a stall to go rather than linger in a café typically surrounded by vapid teens there to take selfies with their beverages. It amused him that such a questionably shallow and dull lifestyle was something so desperately sought by Hellboy and Liz. He was a little surprised to find it was something Embry seemed to want too.

"You know you can come to cafés anytime," Clay murmured as he looked at his cup distastefully wondering how drinks how gone from being called white to blonde and why people needed to know what syrup and milk he wanted in his drink and then regarded him like he was stupid when he said none. "So why is it such a big thing?" Given the cold look he got in answer the agent knew he had somehow stuck his foot in it again.

Embry was stirring two white sugar lumps into her caffè mocha slowly, observing the occupants of the café with a guarded curiosity until Clay spoke. "I have to come alone," she retorted bluntly, "even when I conceal what I am people somehow still sense something's up." She gave a taunting smile. "Must just be my winning personality."

"You're purposely hostile because you don't want people to get to know you because you're afraid that when they do they'll run," Clay replied bluntly. "The first things John told me about were that you wouldn't share with people but you wouldn't be too far from a crowd either. I think the truth is you don't like being alone and you want friends but too many people have turned on you for you to make the effort."

"Are you a shrink now?" Embry grumbled back with a low tone of anger. She leaned across the table and gestured out to the left. "Blonde girl in the tight shorts and see-through lace vest top that you and every other guy in this place has checked out at least three times. She tricked a girl she didn't like into going to the middle of the woods, lied when giving her the address to a party, it took her two miles to nowhere. The girl panicked, she had no phone signal, she hit a tree and her car veered off the road into a ditch. She took ten hours to die, bleeding out slowly, alone and terrified. Blondie just thinks she's missing and she doesn't give a shit. Ask how I know all this?"

Clay looked back at Embry stonily. "How?"

"Because that girl's ghost has been shrieking in my ear about it for ten minutes, she's trying to haunt blondie and is furious that blondie doesn't sense her," Embry answered in a low voice. "There's no off switch for this you know, it comes when it wants, I just draw these spooks to me, sometimes I can tune them out and sometimes I can't." She sighed and looked down to the swirling foam dissolving at the top of her cup. "There Agent Clay, I shared, do you feel happier for it?" she queried bitterly.

"Yeah," he retorted calmly, "I do but it's only fair if I share back so you ask something about me, go ahead."

Embry looked up at him curiously trying to spy something in him though he had no idea what exactly that was. "Only one thing?" she queried quietly.

"Er..."

"You got to see my apartment," she reminded him, "you pried at my medication and my eviction notice and my photograph."

"It was my job," he replied in a lame defence, "and hey I bought you pizza too and now coffee or whatever the hell that's meant to be." He gestured to her cup pointedly. "Not that you're enjoying much of it."

"I like it lukewarm," Embry murmured. She sat back in her seat and fiddled absent-mindedly with the tarnished silver painted ankh charm hanging on a chain of jade painted plastic beads.

"Is the jewellery all for this raising dead thing you do or is some of it show?" Clay pried as he looked pointedly at the rings and bracelets adorning her. A good lot of it seemed like show jewellery- fake, cheap and probably not from a jewellers. A few of the bracelets were nice irregardless and Clay liked the bohemian style, at least on Embry, he was getting a little tired of the dark, sombre look all the agents had to endure and that Liz embraced by choice. Even Hellboy and Abe seemed to prefer a dark look, grubby in Hellboy's case.

"Another question, I thought it was my turn," Embry retorted airily. She released the ankh, lifted her cup with both hands and blew on it softly as she fixed a blue gaze on Clay over the rim.

The agent watched patiently as she blew again, slow as if it was a ritual act before she finally took the slightest sip and savoured it with a brief look of pleasure before chancing another. There was something in the way she drank at the caffè mocha that made Clay believe it actually did taste damn good.

"Some of it is because I think it's pretty," Embry admitted at last as she sat the cup back down, "but some of it has its purposes." She lifted the ankh again. "The ankh is a symbol of death and life after all, it'd be better to have a decent one, gold, but I'm hardly flash with cash so I'll take what I can get." She released it and then quipped suddenly, "what's your real name Clay?"

"Um..." Clay flustered slightly at this.

"You know mine and you know most of my life history it seems so share, I'm tired of the code names or is this getting to you know crap just that, crap? Is this coffee outing just so I'll go back to the agency compliantly instead of kicking and screaming? So you can get brownie points for getting me back quietly?"

"Stop that," Clay scorned her, "reading into everything I do and looking for an ulterior motive. You're always defensive, with everyone but not everyone is going to drop you. You summoned the professor, who was a father to Hellboy and did he yell at you? Did he chase you out? No, he was concerned about you. You made me relive my own death, unintentionally I know, and did I run screaming for the hills?"

"You had no choice," Embry answered bitterly.

"Oh there's always a choice," Clay snapped, "Marble bolted from you and they let him but I didn't. Sure, maybe being my first job back my choice was limited but no one's forcing me to socialise with you or spend more time with you than necessary but here I am. I want to be your friend, Hellboy wants to be your friend, and so do Liz and Abe. My name's Jasper alright, Jasper Penny."

Embry smiled at this. "Isn't Jasper a stone? Couldn't you keep the name?"

"Yeah that would kind of defeat the purpose of a codename for identity protection."

"And why did they let you in on the supernatural?"

"I'm ex-army and while overseas I encountered a djinn, twenty of us did, whole squad, only two of us made it out, they recruited us both, he went to one agency and I eventually made it here."

Embry nodded. "Alright and, final question and I want total honesty, do I really not freak you out? Can you honestly tell me you've put up with me because you like me and not because you need to keep your career?"

"No you don't freak me out, losing my hair freaks me out," the agent retorted humorously. "As for the rest," he said quietly, "it's been a little of both, I'll admit it, I do have to keep my career but I do like you, maybe because you piss off Manning and you freak out half the staff who I don't like and you made Marble pee his pants and I think he's an asshole or maybe because sub-consciously I'm a narcissist and I like the abuse you continuously put me through."

Embry laughed at this. She tensed just as quickly and looked sharply to the blonde.

"We can go if you want," Clay murmured. "I prefer coffee to go anyway."

Embry sighed and looked at her barely drunk cup. She took a deep gulp before setting it down again and nodded. "Yeah let's go, it's getting too noisy in here."

* * *

Embry and Clay arrived back at the Bureau just over two hours after leaving it. Clay offered to take Embry to her new accommodations and she followed with an obvious reluctance. She walked slow and quiet, staring at the floor as she did. Clay led the way with ease, heading to where most of the accommodations were with more haste than Embry wanted.

The agent stopped outside a door on the left at last and looked back over his shoulder to Embry. "Well this is it," he said brightly, "ladies first."

Embry sighed as she stepped forwarded with her rucksack over her right shoulder and her tasselled bag slung over her chest. She reached out a hand, pushed down the handle and pushed the door inwards.

"Surprise!"

Embry jumped at the voices and looked in with shock at Hellboy, Liz and John who were standing in the centre of a small but cosy room that looked newly decorated. Liz stood in the middle of the men holding a box of buns outwards. "Didn't have time to get a cake," she explained, "but welcome."

"Didn't have much time for this either," Hellboy remarked as a turquoise and gold disc tapestry behind him slipped down from the wall revealing cracks.

"What is this?" Embry pried.

"Your new place. It doesn't have to be like captivity here," Liz said gently, "it can be home. Don't let van Rossum win, Red, Blue and I live here, it's not so bad."

"Abe chipped in too," Hellboy remarked. He stepped forward and let out a wince as his horn stumps banged off a low hanging, dark lampshade. He gestured to three books resting on a shelf on the wall. "He said you might like them."

Embry nodded as she sat her bags down on a lone wooden chair that had numerous velvet covered cushions and a cosy, patchwork blanket on it. The furniture was a mishmash as items had been pilfered from numerous rooms about the Bureau hastily. A coffee table was ovular in shape, black with a glass top and so obviously taken from an office, snatched so quickly that someone's notes were still resting on the lower shelf.

"Clay texted and insisted on the cushions," Hellboy explained. "I don't know why anyone likes cushions, they just take up unnecessary space."

Embry looked at Clay curiously. "Wait, was this what coffee was about?" she pried.

"It wasn't totally an ulterior motive, you wanted coffee," Clay reminded her, "I just had to keep you busy for an hour but I could've done that anywhere."

Embry nodded. "I'm not mad."

"Wait, coffee?" John pried with a suspicious glance at Clay.

Liz held out the box of buns to Embry. "Go on, you open them," she urged.

Embry made to accept and their fingertips brushed against each other as she did.

 _Hundreds of demons charging forward. The blue fire came, the strongest of the fire, a necessity to save them both. Both? John and Hellboy, blurred and screaming in the shadows. The blue fire washed all the fear away as it incinerated all their enemies to dust. Well not quite all but it was too late for that now. The blue fire took too much out of her and she hit the unawareness of unconsciousness before she could help it._

 _There was a voice, dark, sinister and familiar. It drew a memory of a nightmare of hands on her brow and a whisper conjuring the fire against her will. All those poor people in the asylum. An inferno in her sleep. She was still haunted by those screams and that terrible smell of burned flesh. That smell always stayed with her, ever since her parents. She felt the danger, she felt the cold and the pain and she wanted to scream but she was helpless. Weak, drained and unconscious. She wanted to fight him but she couldn't. She could never fight him. She wanted at least to say farewell to Red and to poor Myers too if this was how it was to be._

 _She had no time. One moment unconsciousness and the next death. It was sudden but it hurt. Inside she screamed in horror and agony. He didn't harm her body, he sucked out her soul, ripped it out with ease. One moment she had a form of flesh and bone and the next she was a spirit hurtling through the darkness. She had expected nothingness, her Catholic fate twisted by her misdeeds, maybe there would be hell, maybe she would burn for loving a demon but this wasn't hell was it?_

 _She was on the other side but she didn't know what that meant. Cold, dark, something big pulsing out there, something monstrous with many limbs and eyes and trapped in crystal. Other things too, monsters creeping out of the shadows to grab her. Then a voice, a whisper but so commanding and full of threat. It all ended with that voice and she was back to the living._

Liz screamed first as the buns hit the floor. Tears of fear rushed to her eyes and she ran from the room clutching her ebony hair with both hands. It couldn't be! She had remembered the fire and unconsciousness but not the rest! John had told her her heart had stopped and she remembered Hellboy talking about telling the creatures to let her go otherwise he would cross over for her but she had never remembered those horrible creatures in the shadows until now!

Embry was hugging herself, sobbing and shaking her head over and over. "I didn't mean to," she babbled, "I didn't."

"Didn't mean what?!" Hellboy snapped. "What's going on? What did you do to Liz?" He rounded on her with an accusing look, putting her in his shadow as she trembled.

John put himself between the two instinctively though he didn't quite know what was going on either.

"Ah shit," Clay cursed uncharacteristically as the realisation hit him at last. "They touched."

"So?" Hellboy snarled as he looked at the agent like he had two heads.

"And Liz died, like me," Clay snapped back. "She can't help it Red, Embry brings back the memories of the death, it's just part of what she does. People with near death, or in our case, outright death experiences, Embry is sensitive to that."

"Sensitive?" Hellboy sneered. "What does that mean? What do you mean bring back?"

Embry's lips turned blue as she suddenly hit the floor.

"Embry!" John cried out. "What's happening now?"

"She relives it," Clay explained hastily, "the victim sees it in the mind but Embry actually feels it to an extent, when she touched me she had bruises in the place where I was stabbed."

"Liz had her soul ripped out," John whispered in horror as Embry's eyes closed and she slumped to unconsciousness. "Embry no!"


	7. Chapter 6- A Rude Awakening

Embry awoke slowly, reluctant to come round as she was being subjected to a migraine. Her head pounded at all sides and she feared opening her eyes would only make it worse. She opened the lids slowly, squinting and let out a moan of agony as the light seared through the gap to her irises and pulsated through her skull. "Fuck," she muttered. She tried to lift her right hand to bring to her brow but when it wouldn't budge she suddenly realised something was wrong.

Panic filled the young woman as she tried to raise her other hand and met with the same resistance. Cold, hard metal stung against her flesh and as she tried to flex her feet she felt the same metallic bite about her ankles. Her eyes opened wide in alarm and for a moment there was only white. She tensed and hissed at the blindly light as her head screamed in pain. The expected rush of wild death energy did not come however, there was no whoosh of chaotic power, no sudden appearance or spectres or ghosts in fact she felt the opposite, she felt drained.

Embry tried to recall what had happened as the whiteness began to slowly dim, shrinking back to reveal the source a set of round, bright lab lights hanging close above her suspended from a metal arm. There was a smell too, clinically clean, bleach that burned her nostrils and the odour of sterilisation. She hated it. She turned to her left, aware now that she was on some sort of surgical table only bound by metal cuffs instead of the old-fashioned rubber straps. "What the fuck?" she snapped angrily.

"Oh you're awake."

Embry looked ahead to a brown haired man in a pale blue lab coat peering at her with a pair of large, bright green eyes. "And who the fuck are you?" she growled at him.

"Dr. Ainsley," he retorted brightly. "Good you're awake now, now I can do some more tests."

Embry tensed at the word and shook her head. She remembered the rubber tightening about her arms and creating deep, red grooves in it. Tests, tests to prove she was mad, forbidden tests to banish the madness. Just bite down, close your eyes and let it all go away.

"What are you talking about? Where am I?"

"Still in the B.P.R.D," he said reassuringly. "You collapsed and then things happened."

"And how did I end up here?"

"Here is a hospital," he said with a smile.

Embry glanced about her, there were no other people just equipment she didn't know the purpose of, no windows and one single steel door. "Doesn't look like one," she grumbled.

"We're in the theatre room," Dr. Ainsley explained. "Now, enough talking, I've work to do."

"What work?" she demanded. "Why am I a prisoner here?"

"You're not, you're just a dangerous patient, the bonds are as much for your security as ours. You unleashed some things when you collapsed, dead things, don't you remember?"

Embry tensed as a feeling of icy darkness suddenly washed over her. For a moment her vision blanked out and there was only the dark and the unseen beasts lurking in it. She screamed as a sharp jab to her right arm brought her back to reality. She turned her head sharply to the right to see the pipe linked to her limb and a drip full of a questionable yellow liquid. "What is that?" she demanded.

"It induces mild seizures, I want to see if your gifts can be brought on as an involuntary reaction, do the spirits come with your pain, your fear."

"Stop it," she growled out, "they'll hurt you when they come, is that what you want?"  
Dr. Ainsley leaned down to her, pressing his face close against hers as he gave a wide smile. "Miss Myers I'm not staying in the room." He stood upright and started walking away.

"Wait!" Embry shrieked after him. "The walls won't hold them, they'll get you! Wait!" She strained against her bonds but could no more fight metal than she could rubber. "No!"

Her body filled with pain and against her will she began thrashing about, jumping and twitching on the table as she screamed. Her screams grew louder and louder but even as her eyes went wide and she foamed at the mouth no spirits came.

From behind a room of one-way vision safety glass and steel Dr. Ainsley watched on with dismay. He waited for half an hour until the seizures finally faded and the woman was left trembling and whimpering. Then he returned to the room with a needle of liquid in hand this time. "This is a hallucinogenic," he explained calmly, "perhaps since pain doesn't draw them, fear will."

"Who authorised this?" Embry snarled as she spat up saliva. Her migraine had morphed into something else and now the room seemed to be spinning.

"No one as such, you were brought to my care," Dr. Ainsley retorted, "but this is care. How can I ignore the chance to study one like you? A creature that summons the dead." He readied the needle and moved to her left arm this time. "You might like this one, some people do."

There was a loud bang as the door was swung open so hard it snapped off its hinges. The doctor jumped with alarm and looked over with wide eyes as Agent John Myers hurried in with Hellboy, Liz and Agent Clay close behind.

"You son of a bitch what are you doing to her?" John snapped. He withdrew his gun and aimed it at the doctor with a look of fury.

Liz hastened forward as she took in Embry's vulnerable state, noting that the young woman bore visible bruising and was naked, her hospital gown and blanket discarded to a heap on the floor. "You sick bastard," Liz snarled as she conjured a ball of yellow flame to her right hand.

"What?" the doctor snapped with a look of ire. "I'm only doing my job! Finding out how it works, what drives the power."  
"It?" John echoed. He clicked the safety off his gun. "She," he snapped, "Embry, my sister!"

Hellboy finally looked to Embry and rage filled him at her state. With one bound forward he vanished the space between him and the doctor and instantly had him by the throat and dangling in the air. "I'll break your neck doc!"

"Red don't do it," Clay called warningly, "don't give van Rossum the excuse!"

Hellboy ignored the agent and tightened his grasp until the doctor turned blue and his eyes bulged slightly as he gasped for air, kicking and flailing like a man dancing on a noose.

Liz banished the flame as she looked to Embry again. Embry was wide eyed, trembling against her will and still struggling with the cuffs. "Red enough, we need to help Embry!" Liz snapped. "Forget him, he's not worth it!"

Hellboy gave a grunt of frustration before flinging the man carelessly into a wall with enough force to break a few bones. There was the sound of numerous footsteps before an irate Michael van Rossum, a panicked Thomas Manning, a puzzled Nevin Cochrane and a few curious agents appeared in the doorway.

"What the hell is going on here?" Michael demanded.

John looked at him with disgust. "You tell us!" he snapped. "We were told this was an infirmary!"

Michael looked past him and his eyes widened a little. "I didn't know about this!" he retorted. He turned a glare on Manning. "What is this?" he demanded as he gestured inwards with one hand.

"The theatre!" Manning retorted with a look of fear. "It's for surgery but that's it, not whatever he's been doing in here!" He paled and turned his gaze inwards to Myers and the others. He shook his head numbly and held both hands up. "I didn't know either, this doctor was on his own with this!"

"Maybe someone should help the lady," Nevin said calmly, "this isn't fair all of us here looking in." He glanced at the other agents. "Let's go gentlemen, there are enough people to handle the situation." He backed off whilst the others looked to Manning and van Rossum for orders.

"Go," Michael snapped with a dismissive wave. "Don't kill that doctor," he called in to Hellboy, "he will answer to the Bureau for this. No matter what we think of our supernatural friends we treat everyone humanely, this is barbaric and he will answer for it."

"That's not good enough!" John snapped. His gun was still aimed at the doctor.

"John help your sister," Liz suggested as she looked at the blanket on the floor pointedly.

John followed her stare and nodded before he hurried forward. He plucked up the blanket and threw it over Embry awkwardly. "Shit," he muttered. "We need to get these bonds off."

"There's probably a button or something," Liz said lamely.

"Or there's me," Hellboy remarked helpfully as he stepped up with a smile. "How you doing girl Myers?"

"Just great," Embry answered sardonically with a forced smile that turned quickly into a frown as she was unable to stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. She looked away from the red skinned demon man and muttered, "fuck."

Clay looked at John with a frown, the man was keeping his distance from the woman, everyone was even Hellboy despite his offer to help.

"Um I don't know how to do this without touching you," the demonic man admitted.

"No," she murmured wearily, "everyone's afraid of contact."

Clay winced seeing the tears that soaked her face with that remark and he wondered when she had last had any real human contact. Oh sure it wasn't everyone that caused the deathflash, just people with unfortunate experiences like him and Liz and even then he couldn't be certain it would happen every single time they touched but he imagined it had made people wary of the woman and equally made Embry wary of others. He felt a pang of pity wondering what it was like to have people afraid to give you a handshake, a hug or something more intimate, gestures of affection that came on a whim, hell even light-hearted gestures of friendship or the casual nudging of a stranger in the street, she probably got jumpy when that happened, fearful if it got too crowded on the subway that she might be subject to a vision.

Clay stepped forward and tugged the glove off his right hand. Even a hint of a memory and he'd pull back but damn it someone had to try. He brushed his fingertips against hers lightly and was relieved when no dark visions came.

Embry tensed up when Clay gripped her hand and she looked at him with terror. "What are you doing?" she queried hoarsely.

"We've already had our share session," Clay replied confidently, "maybe it only has to happen once." He looked to Hellboy. "I'm holding on to her, you get those cuffs off Red, any vision comes it will be mine and hers."

"Careful Clay," Liz cautioned, "you don't know how it works."

"She's weak," Clay murmured, "I don't think she's the strength for it."

"Maybe not," Liz agreed calmly, "but you don't know when it will come back."

Clay gave Embry's hand a gentle squeeze. "Well that's okay, it's just a memory, I've already lived it and dealt with it."

The cuffs came free with ease as Hellboy snapped them off like they were made of paper. Once she was free he smiled awkwardly and looked to John and the others. "Now what?" he quipped.

"Now we take her somewhere safe," John said seriously.

Embry moved suddenly, tugging free from Clay to roll over and snatch Liz's gun from its holster without warning. It was off the safety and aimed at the groaning doctor before anyone could protest.

"Embry don't!" Liz shouted.

"Why shouldn't I?" she growled out angrily. "How long was I here? What all did he do when I was unconscious?" She turned a hateful glower on the gawking van Rossum and Manning and aimed the gun in their direction. "You think I'm gonna believe you didn't know about this?!"

"Think carefully about what you're doing Miss Myers," Michael retorted coldly as he kept a calm stare on her. She was still lying down and he could see the pain in her eyes, she was still sore and dazed, he had his doubts that she could aim right although he wasn't sure about chancing it.

Thomas Manning couldn't hide his nerves as he looked at the nozzle of the gun anxiously. "I swear I didn't know," he protested. "You haven't been here long, just a few hours, he was supposed to help you!"

Embry breathed slow and hard. "You just want to study and control me."

"Embry," John said with a pleading look, "I understand why you're mad but don't do this. They're not worth it." He raised his gun and pointed it to the doctor again. "Look, it doesn't have to be on your hands, okay? You want him dead then I'll do it, I'll shoot him but not you, you've been haunted by enough death."

Embry tensed when Hellboy suddenly clamped a heavy red hand about the gun, taking care to avoid touching her hand. "He's the monster," Hellboy said calmly, "not you, don't let that change."

Embry swallowed back a sob at this and shook her head. "People keep hurting me, trying to make it go away like it's a sickness what I can do but it's not."

"I get that," Liz spoke up, "it was the same for me. I spent many years in the asylum thinking if only my mind could be cured the fire could too. I thought it was a curse but it's not, it's a gift. It's a gift for you too Embry even if it does have its side effects." She shuffled uncomfortably as she banished the memory that tried to struggle back. It had been intense seeing her own death experience and she never wanted to see it again.

Embry bowed her head. "You can have the gun back," she said quietly as she released it to Hellboy.

Hellboy handed the gun back to Liz.

"Come on," Hellboy said gently as he turned a small smile on Embry, "let's get you away from these assholes."

Michael frowned, knowing full well Hellboy meant him and Manning as well as the doctor but he didn't protest.

Clay stepped forward again and looked down at Embry expectantly. "Are you going to let me carry you?" he queried.

"Do I have to?" Embry retorted hotly as she tried to muster a defensive front.

"Can you walk?" he quipped calmly.

"No," she admitted sullenly.

"Then you have to." He tugged off his jacket and offered it down to her.

"It'll itch," she complained even as she accepted it.

"Sorry, if I'd known I was coming to rescue you from a mad doctor I'd have worn my Armani suit," the agent retorted sardonically.

Embry smiled at this even as the tears continued to pour and her body quivered. "Mad doctor, shit and I thought that was just something from the comics." She tried to push herself up into a better position but failed as her palms skidded along the metal beneath her without warning and her arms quivered and buckled. Her entire body froze up when Clay reached out to her, one bare hand pressing against the warm skin of her back as he eased her up slowly, taking care to bring the blanket up with her and offer her some dignity.

Embry was stunned when no visions came. "You shouldn't," she protested weakly, "it could still happen."

"It's fine," he said dismissively, "come on, put the jacket on, I'll hold the blanket."

He withdrew his hand and Embry fumbled with the black jacket with a few winces before it was on. His hand returned, this time brushing against her neck and she stiffened again before a sob escaped her. "I'm not used to this, I don't know what to do."

Clay pulled back his gloved hand and tugged off the leather glove with his teeth before dropping it to the floor. Wordlessly he pulled the young woman into a hug. "There we go, that's what you do," he murmured dryly. "Human contact without the shitiness for a change."

John watched on numbly as his sister broke down into sobs against the agent. He wondered in annoyance how Clay had gotten through the resolve and figured he was just lucky, striking when Embry was weak from her encounter with the doctor. The woman was exhausted and in a state of shock and confusion, in time she would probably snap back into her bitter, mistrustful self and the walls would go back up. John realised that at least Clay had tried whilst he had hung back but not because he was afraid of visions. The truth was Embry could never invoke any death related memories for her brother though he had some, all he feared from her was rage, another slap, yelling, revulsion or resistance. He knew, like Clay, that she was starved for human contact but he didn't think she was so hungry that she would accept his.

"How about we get away from the Bureau?" Liz suggested quietly.

"Van Asshole won't allow that," Hellboy murmured back as he jerked a thumb in Michael and Manning's direction in an obvious manner.

"Message Blue," Liz retorted, "and get a truck ready."

"Where can we go?" Hellboy queried. "No offence Liz but Blue and I stand out just a little."

"I know somewhere," Clay murmured, "just message Blue and let's get going already." He glanced down at the young woman shaking against him, he felt pity for her. Hell he felt pity for the whole lot of them- Embry, Hellboy, Abe and Liz, all of them branded freaks from birth, taunted, feared and experimented upon, it was barbaric. His cool blue gaze drifted up to the senior Myers and he met an envious stare that made him frown. In that moment he wanted to grab John and give him a shake. Whatever had happened between John and Embry it was quite obvious John was the wrongdoer, sure he hadn't realised his sister really did have a connection to the dead but Clay wasn't so sure that was a satisfactory excuse for abandoning her to an asylum and why the hell had he not contacted her the moment he had met Hellboy and realised that she must have been telling the truth? Clay figured quietly that it wasn't his business or concern but a small voice nagged at him, telling him that someone should be looking out for Embry since her brother was doing such a lousy job at it.

"Alright, you ready to go?" Clay queried quietly.

Embry nodded. "Yeah, just get me the hell out of this place." She sniffled and gave an angry groan.

Clay scooped her up sideways, one arm under the crook of her legs and the other around the middle of her back. His jacket covered most of her whilst the blanket was scrunched up around the rest of her. Even through the jacket and blanket he could feel that she was ice cold.

They headed for the doorway, which Manning had the grace to step back from. Michael remained blocking half of it with a bold, defensive stance.

"It is unfortunate what this so called doctor did," Michael addressed Embry with a cold stare, "and not the Bureau's way however, the incident that led to this was a stark reminder to you and us all that we are right to consider you to be a danger best kept under close watch."

Manning let out a cry of surprise when Michael hit the ground hard and fast from the force of John's sudden and unexpected punch. John had hit his superior square in the face with the full force of fist knocking him into unconsciousness with a bloody nose.

Clay looked at the younger male with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't know you had that in you," he murmured admiringly.

"You...you...what the hell Myers?!" Manning stuttered.

Hellboy laughed and said, "he had it coming. Good job squirt, you're finally learning."

"Was that necessary?" Liz queried disapprovingly.

John glanced over his shoulder at the porcelain skinned beauty and felt a pang of shame as she looked down at van Rossum with scorn. He hadn't even thought about it, the rage had been building up since he had entered this room and he had just seen red hearing the blond insult Embry and reacted.

"Come on Liz of course it was necessary, guy's an ass," Hellboy answered.

"You better hope he doesn't remember this when he wakes up," Manning continued to stutter and yell as he glanced from van Rossum to John, "or you'll end up transferred to Antarctica or worse!"

John continued looking at Liz as he considered trying to explain he'd done it for Embry but he figured Liz knew that and just didn't think it justified his rash actions. He sighed and turned away, catching sight of Clay walking on up the corridor with Embry he started to follow after them at a brisk walk.

The group left van Rossum where he had fallen with Manning babbling at no one before he finally called for a medic and security to come help and to restrain the doctor. They were quiet as they walked, heading in a deliberate direction to where the Waste Management trucks were waiting. Halfway there Embry tensed against Clay and looked ahead with a wary stare. "What happened when I passed out?" she queried in a serious tone.

"Things started floating about, doors started closing by themselves," Clay retorted, "some staff members complained of hearing whispers in empty rooms and..." He trailed off and glanced to Hellboy.

"And the professor appeared again," it was John who continued on.

"He didn't say anything," Hellboy said mournfully, "even when I spoke to him. He just stood there, see through and quiet, it was eerie."

"Is he still there?" Embry pried.

"No, he faded after a while," Hellboy answered sadly.

"I should...check things," Embry murmured, "and fix them."

"You can do that later," Clay replied dismissively.

Embry was fixated on the floating head and torso that had darted up the corridor almost in a blur to come to a stop within an inch of her. Bloody eye sockets floated level with her own stare as a rotted mouth parted and a voice whispered, "I burned their bodies in the pantry."

"You must have been a shit cook," Embry grumbled back.

"Who?" Hellboy queried. "Clay?"

Clay looked down at Embry curiously. "Since you haven't had my cooking I'm going to assume that wasn't directed at me and that there's someone here we can't see."

Embry nodded and instinctively reached for an ankh that was no longer there. "My charms," she grumbled, "what did he do with them?" She still felt exhausted, mentally and physically, her body was heavy and she ached from head to toe feeling as if she had been struck down by a severe bout of flu. She couldn't even tell if it was because of something the doctor had done or a side effect of sharing Liz's death experience. "They weren't cheap," Embry complained.

"Let's do it the old fashioned way," Clay suggested, "close your eyes and pretend it's not there." He started walking again.

Embry sighed but gave in anyway though she was reluctant to. The moment her lids shut she could feel herself sinking into oblivion. She was just so tired.


	8. Chapter 7- Friends and War

"The dead don't walk, what is it almost Halloween? Come on now, first it's skeleton ducks in a park and then ghosts in a swimming pool, surely you understand the FBI has better things to do with its time than chase up pranks like this," Thomas Manning's voice called out with a tinny echo from the television.

"You know that's one job he's actually good at," Hellboy sneered.

"Do you think he'll use the same speech on van Rossum?" Liz quipped sardonically.

"Oh that's where the scar came from," Abe's voice piped up excitedly. "Now that's an interesting story."

"Get out of my head Abe," John groaned. "You promised no psychic spying."

"No," Abe retorted defensively, "I agreed to no psychic prying on Agent Clay, which is a tragedy because there's so much here to wonder about."

Embry awoke to the voices with a weary groan. Alarmed, she shot upright and looked about her warily. She was purposely silent, long used to waking up with a start after a childhood of being surprised by the undead in her sleep. She stayed still as she tried to take in her surroundings, carefully scenting out for the dead first. Satisfied that all the voices belonged to the living she relaxed slightly. She wasn't in binds or on a cold, metal table and there was no mad doctor. All in all things were looking up. She studied the room she was in, it had a single bed, a dark wooden wardrobe, a matching bedside cabinet and no distinguishing features. No photographs, no personal trinkets, nothing to indicate the owner. Embry pushed back the dark brown blanket and brushed her hand against the stiff white shirt that was buttoned up around her. She swung her legs over the bed and her bare feet hit a hard, off-grey carpet that was uncomfortable against her soles. She headed for the door, opened it and peered out into a narrow hall.

Embry headed down the hall quietly, following the sound of voices and television to a crowded living room with the door slightly ajar. She pushed against it gently to avoid a creak and said calmly, "hey guys."

Abe, John and Liz looked to her with surprise and Abe cried out, "I didn't know you were awake!"

"Good, glad to be quiet," Embry retorted sardonically.

Hellboy let out a snort. "That's not what he means," he jested, "Blue can't get a read on you."

Embry folded her arms and looked at the aquatic man with raised eyebrows. "Hmm." She nodded. "Good, I mean you all got to see me naked and crying so thank God no one's in my head on top of that."

John stood up from the single couch he occupied and hastened to his sister with a look of concern, one hand half-raised. His face filled with dismay when Embry scowled back at him and took a step back. "Embry I didn't know," he said quietly, "okay, I didn't know."

"No, you never know John, you didn't know the ghosts were real, you didn't know mum and dad just wanted you, you didn't know that even with the supernatural agents somehow I'd still get singled out as a freak, hey did the doctor do experiments on you? It's normal for an agent right?" She scanned the room with a hateful stare. "Anyone else?"

Silence was her answer.

Liz stood up from her position on the two seated couch beside Hellboy and hastened up to the young woman. "Hey Embry can we talk?" she queried. "Leave the boys to the t.v. while we're waiting on the takeaway." She gestured to a set of curtains at the left of the living room opposite the two seated couch that ran almost the length of the wall. "This way, there's a balcony out there."

"Right," Embry muttered. She followed after Liz reluctantly, stiff and sore, she kept her arms about her ribs and ignored John's woeful stare. It was hard to walk through the small room and avoid the stares of the males. Abe was seated on the ground, legs extended across the wooden floor as his bulbous eyes darted up to the television. Hellboy took up most of the room making the small room appear all the smaller, he dwarfed the couch he occupied and it was a wonder Liz had found a space beside him. Clay looked awkward, leaning against a back wall beside an unused fireplace, a good vantage point for the door and the balcony. He looked to Embry briefly with an unreadable expression before returning his stare on the door to the hall.

Liz parted the curtain and unlocked one of the balcony doors. She led the way out to a small, black painted, iron balcony, quaint and old fashioned with only a dying, small tree in a cracked pot for decoration. The appeal of the balcony was its envious view of the city at night. Liz leaned across the railing and looked to the view, smiling as she glimpsed the lights of a ferris wheel in the distance accompanied by the glow of the rest of the funfair. She closed her eyes and breathed in the cool night air thinking back to a night when John had taken her on a date there.

Liz opened her eyes after hearing the door close and glanced over her shoulder to Embry. She was surprised to see the young woman was doubled over with one hand extended to the wilting leaves of the tree. "You should be indoors," Embry murmured.

"Do you like plants?" Liz pried.

Embry nodded. "Yeah plants and sea life, weird combination I know but hey, hardly the weirdest thing about me." She stood upright with a wince and looked at Liz curiously. "So, what is it? You want to ask about the blackness, how I can do it? Can I do it again? Or is it about that professor's ghost?"

"No," Liz protested sharply with a wave of her hands. "I don't want to talk about that blackness ever if I don't have to." She gave Embry a serious look and added more quietly, "I don't blame you for it if that's what you really want to know. I understand, it was the same for me, it took me a lot to master the fire and prior to that there were so many uncontrollable bursts and casualties and deaths too."

Embry glanced out to the city view briefly before returning her stare on Liz. "So what did you want to talk about then?"

"Your brother John."

Embry tensed at Liz's voice as her blue gaze filled with anger. "What about him?" she queried icily.

"You need to stop giving him such a hard time. He really didn't know about the doctor, none of us did." Liz stepped up to Embry and said quickly, "I know I don't know all your history with him and I get that when you were young he didn't believe your gift was real and then for some reason when he met Hellboy and us he didn't reach you to you and yeah he should have done, he really should have but..." Liz paused and looked to Embry with a deep, soulful stare. "He is really trying with you now. He has had so many fights with Manning and even van Rossum over you, I didn't even know he had it in him to yell the way he has, you seem to bring that out of him."

Embry gave a bitter smile at this. "I bring out John's anger, yeah great thing I do for him," she sneered.

"No," Liz said in a quiet irritation with a look of frustration, "that's not it. You bring out his determination and his sense of confidence, you do for him what he's done for me and Hellboy so many times. You've cut Clay a break why not John?" Liz quipped as she parted her arms as if to emphasise her point. She was starting to realise just how cold it was out here and even with her black wool jumper she felt it and wondered how Embry must feel clad in only a shirt. "I had an episode in the asylum," she explained, "not long John after joined us, people died. I couldn't talk to anyone for days, I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, I just sat in a shell of self-hatred and guilt and then along came John." Liz's expression softened and she gave a faint smile. "He didn't have to, in fact he shouldn't have. I had burned people, he should have run a mile but he came, just John, no other agents, no black cars, no guards, just him. He listened to me and he treated me like a human being. He opened up to me, he trusted me and told me about your uncle, he became my friend and he took me out. He knew I didn't want to go back to the Bureau so he took me in the car to take photographs because he knew I liked doing that and he took me for coffee, all just everyday things so I could feel normal and rehabilitate better."

Liz paused and pushed back a strand of her hair as she looked to the view again. She hadn't realised how deep her feelings ran for John. He was a close friend, perhaps her closest along with Abe and in her own way she loved him as one. The thought of love for anyone other than Red stunned her and she shook it off, telling herself that love for a friend was not the same as love for a partner, a boyfriend, a lover, what exactly was Red to her or she to him? She made herself dismiss that thought as well and return to the matter at hand.

"Embry," Liz continued on quietly as she met the woman's icy stare again, "what I'm trying to say is, John is a good man and I know that for a fact and I know you do too. You can't keep hating him because he made mistakes in the past, he couldn't see your ghosts."

Embry tensed, she was still hugging herself, tighter now thanks to the cold though it made her ribs ache all the more. "I know I just wish he could've picked up the phone once in a while," she murmured. "Hey Embry I met Hellboy, I know you're not crazy and I'm going to get you out of the asylum. Hey Embry, I'm sorry I didn't call to say dad was dead and that you had to find that out when his ghost showed up at the asylum to yell at you." Embry shuddered as a tear trickled down her left cheek. She turned away from Liz sharply and rubbed away the tear. "You know what, I'm done and it's freezing."

Embry was ready to reach for the door but she paused at the sorry look plant and knelt down to it.

Liz reached for the door and opened it inwards before striding back to the couch Hellboy remained on. The men watched as Embry followed with a dirty plant pot clutched tightly in both hands.

"Sorry your shirt's dirty but you deserve it," she addressed Clay as she peered at him from behind the thin, knotted trunk of the plant, "this is an indoor plant and you've been mistreating it."

"Wasn't even aware it was alive," Clay murmured, "and how did you know it was mine?"

"Well this isn't John's apartment and everyone else lives in the Bureau," Embry surmised, "and it has this blank, stoic smell, it's like you, nothing to it, just a plain, generic apartment for a plain, generic agent."

"Firstly, it's not generic, it has a broken houseplant," Clay retorted calmly, "and secondly, I only moved here last month and I seem to be at work an awful lot lately. There's a lot of overtime for chasing after women who raise the dead."

Embry sat the plant down in a corner and stroked its trunk sympathetically. "It's dying," she said softly.

"Well I don't have any plant food," the agent retorted with a lack of concern.

"That's okay," Embry answered brightly, "you can get some when you're getting me trousers and some underwear."

"When I'm what?" the agent stuttered as he stared at her with wide eyes.

"Well I can't leave your home until I have something to wear can I?" Embry remarked dryly as she gestured down at herself with both hands.

Hellboy laughed. "I like you girl Myers, really, even if you do like mushrooms on pizza."

Embry looked over at Hellboy in surprise, her gaze darting from him to Clay with suspicion. "You told him that?"

"Actually I picked it up from him," Abe confessed. "Just because I can't read you doesn't mean I can't read other people about you. For instance, Agent Clay is now wondering what kind of underwear you wear and Agent Myers is thinking about all the houseplants you had in a greenhouse when you were young."

"Jesus Christ Abe!" Clay spluttered as Hellboy burst into loud bouts of laughter. "You said you'd stay out of my head!"

Mercifully for Clay the bell for his apartment buzzed. Red faced he charged out of the room muttering curses as he headed to buzz the delivery man up.

Embry looked over at John calmly. "You remember the greenhouse," she murmured.

John nodded. "Yeah, it got neglected without you around, it was the one place you always seemed at peace. I remember daffodils being your favourite flower even though you didn't grow them in there and holly, every Christmas you would beg for holly."

Embry gave a faint smile at this. "And you would always get me a sprig even though dad would get so angry and say I only wanted it for a spell."

"It does have properties for breaking hexes and protecting against evil spirits," Abe chimed up, "and daffodils too, the bulbs especially."

John looked over at his sister curiously. "Is that why you wanted them?" he queried.

Embry shook her head with a sorrowful look. "I was just a little girl, I had no idea what was happening to me or why or what might stop it. The daffodils were bright, the holly was pretty and it made me feel calm, maybe that was why but I didn't realise it then." She sighed. "Now I have my charms or rather I did, what the doctor didn't steal is in my bag in the Bureau."

"The food's here and Clay can't carry it all," Abe announced, "but he's embarrassed to ask for help."

"Can't imagine why," Hellboy said sardonically.

"I'll go," John retorted before he hastened out the door.

"Oh shoot and I was just about to offer," Hellboy said bitingly, "I'm sure Abe or I wouldn't scare the delivery man."

Embry caught a strong whiff of spicy food and looked at the others curiously. "What did you order?"

"Indian," Hellboy answered, "I argued for pizza and beer but John said it might make you feel better and he's paying anyway."

At Clay's insistence the group moved to the kitchen to eat, which proved too cramped with so many of them. Embry commented that she needed the toilet first and allowed Clay to show her the way.

"You know I can get you something else to wear," Clay offered as he led the way up a corridor. "Liz put you in the shirt, just something for you to sleep in."

"Surely that's all you own," Embry retorted teasingly, "black suits and white shirts."

"I might have a Mickey Mouse t-shirt crumpled in a corner of a drawer that I didn't intend to see the light of day." He glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled. "Souvenir from my eight-year-old niece, had to buy something for her only uncle."

Embry smiled back. "You have family?" she queried mockingly. "And there I thought you agents were all just made in a factory."

Clay stopped outside a door on the left and gestured to it. "You've gotta tug the flush a couple of times and give it a jiggle, this is an old building."

Embry tensed at his words and gave him an odd look. "Old building?" she echoed.

He nodded. "Yeah, most town houses round here are, bad heating in winter but nice views, noisy pipes but cheap rent."

"And a lot of deaths," Embry said grimly.

Clay shrugged. "Maybe, nothing violent that I know of if that helps."

"Alright." Embry reached for the door handle and found it stiff, it took a couple of twists to get it to turn and open.

"You want that t-shirt?"

Embry nodded. "Sure." She stepped into the bathroom.

Dinner was a jovial affair, marred only a little by the irate calls from Manning and van Rossum. Abe provided most of the humour with tales of past exploits and even Embry laughed when he, John and Liz explained how Hellboy threw a large, steel cannister through a wall to scare Manning.

"In my defence," Hellboy jested, "I thought poor, old Clay here was a goner."

"I almost was," Clay murmured. "I'd say getting stabbed by an undead Nazi is pretty bad but judging from the number of voicemails I'm getting left tonight I'm not so sure." He looked to his mobile on the table wearily as it blinked to indicate a fourth message.

"I'll take the blame," John said calmly, "I punched van Rossum after all."

"He had it coming," Hellboy insisted.

"Speaking of, we should head back after this," Liz remarked, "we'll get our story straight in the van."

"I'll drive back," John offered as he looked to Embry, "and I'll go get you some clothes and come back."

Embry nodded gratefully. "And then what?" she queried quietly. "Do I go back to jail?"

"Nope," Clay answered calmly, "we had a deal, I swore you wouldn't be a prisoner there so you can stay here until Manning and van Rossum confirm for you in writing that you won't be a prisoner."

"Wow Clay how many pairs of underwear do you think you'll have to buy then?" Hellboy scoffed.

Clay's neck reddened as he frowned over at his demonic friend. "Seriously?" he snapped with a wilting stare.

Hellboy laughed in answer.

–

John was nervous as he fell under the looming shadow of the B.P.R.D building. He wondered if he was getting fired or worse. Was van Rossum aware of who had knocked him out? What would the punishment be for that? Expulsion, arrest, maybe both? He headed with Liz, Hellboy and Abe through a back entrance, opting for discretion probably a little too late in the evening.

He tensed feeling Red's heavy hand clamp down on his shoulder unexpectedly and glanced up at his demonic friend.

"We're all in this together squirt," Hellboy said happily with a confident grin.

John made himself smile back though he thought about how he, unlike Hellboy, was replaceable and a lot easier disposed of.

"You know there's one thing I don't get," Abe murmured as they entered the building. They bypassed a few workers who purposely avoided eye contact and didn't even bother with a polite hello.

"Just one," Hellboy mused, "I mean you spend most of your life as an aquarium exhibit, there must be more than one."

"The doctor," Abe continued, purposely ignoring Hellboy's quip, "Dr. Ainsley, what was his motivation for what he did?"

John bristled at the question and turned an annoyed stare on Abe. "What does that matter?" he demanded. "There's no justification for it."

Abe gave John a calm stare in answer. "Of course not," he reassured, "but it was rather out of character for him, wasn't it?" He glanced from John to Liz and then to Hellboy.

Hellboy shrugged. "Never knew the nutjob."

"Me either," Liz said, "but it does seem risky and a little crazy to target Embry like that."

"It's her gift," John remarked, "he's just like van Rossum, he wanted to control it."

"I don't know," Liz argued in a soft tone, "but I suppose we might never know."

They stopped walking as they reached the outside of Hellboy's living quarters.

"I suppose I'll wait for the summons," Hellboy mused happily.

Liz glanced from him to John. She wasn't eager for confrontation but she felt a little guilty leaving John to walk on alone. She could see in the agent's face that he wasn't going to wait to be called, he was going to confront their superiors head on.

"It's okay Liz," John said softly with a small smile, "they'll see it as an attack if we go together. Maybe they'll be happy enough just to fire me." He turned away from the trio and started walking on.

"Don't be gloomy Myers," Hellboy called jovially, "firing you wouldn't be fun for van Rossum, he'd rather keep you around to torment."

"Thanks Red," Myers called back sardonically without looking back.

The walk up the corridor felt like a death march for John. He moved in solitude and wondered when he had last seen the corridors around here so devoid of life. He grimaced as he realised it had been shortly after the professor's death when the Bureau had gone into a state of mourning and everyone had become hidden and subdued. He wondered if it really was his ghost Embry had conjured a few times or just a memory. If it was him did that mean he hadn't crossed over, that he was unsettled over something? John had worried since the professor's murder that he hadn't been fulfilling his shoes as a friend and guardian for Hellboy. The professor had been a father to Hellboy and hadn't expected John to fulfil that role, John knew that but the professor had been expecting something. It had been a puzzlement for John, Clay had gotten moved on for supposedly becoming too close with Hellboy yet the professor seemed to want John to be close with him, to John that had never made much sense. He knew there was something he was missing and now he wondered if against all the odds and possibilities his sister might be able to give him a chance to ask the late Professor Broom about it.

"Hey you came back."

John glanced up at the cheery voice and looked at the bright eyed Agent Cochrane warily. "Well I had to," he murmured.

Nevin gave a chuckle at this. "Of course, we agents must always return to the mother ship," he jested lightly, "but maybe you should've given it another day."

John raised his dark eyebrows slightly at this. "van Rossum still mad?" he queried.

Nevin's smile widened. "A more subdued way of putting it but yes. He's fairly certain you knocked him out but not entirely positive and no one is willing to confirm for him whether the image of your fist heading for his face is a memory or a nightmare." Nevin's pale blue eyes turned inquisitive. "I'm curious about that myself."

John shrugged. "I can't remember much except a psychotic doctor, and my sister being attacked," he said in a dark tone.

Nevin frowned at this and John realised it was one of the few times he had seen the blonde frown. "Yes, odd business that, Manning says the doctor was always strange but never so violently inclined. He's in a cell but he's not saying much, just keeps ranting about Embry's talents and how anyone would desire that gift."

"It's not a gift to her," John admitted before he could help himself. Now he was frowning too.

Nevin smiled again. "So rarely do we appreciate our own talents," he mused, "grass is always greener and all that. Anyway, how is she?"

"Safe," John answered bluntly.

Nevin raised both his palms in mock defence. "I'm not prying, I swear and I'm on your side, if we are in an internal war here and there's a side to take. I'd still like to take her up on that offer for coffee, if you can tell her that, maybe let her know we're not all van Rossums and Dr. Ainsleys."

"Sure. Anyway, I'd better go."

Nevin remained standing as he was, partially in John's path. "Are you looking for van Rossum or Manning?"

"Either or both, I'm not picky about who fires me," John retorted dismissively.

Nevin laughed again. "Well they're both in Manning's office, I've just left there. Look, I'll come with you, I'll help work this out. Tell them the truth, that we need you guys in on this War business and I don't foresee any of you helping if van Rossum fires your ass, and that it's crazy to punish you for helping your sister."

Nevin gestured back the way he had come with one arm, waving John to walk on.

John regarded the blond with a degree of suspicion. "Why do you want to help?" he demanded.

Nevin looked sombre for a moment as he glanced back at John. "Because what's coming is far worse that petty office fallouts and we need everyone together. Fighting, it's exactly what War wants, don't you think we should try to make it harder for him not easier?"

"I..I don't really get this War business," John admitted, "I didn't even think the Apocalypse were literal, I thought it was a metaphor. Suppose with the Ogdru Jahad being real that's my stupidity."

Nevin's sombreness melted away instantly for another cheery smile. "No that's innocence, wish I still had some of it," he retorted kindly.

John should have been insulted to be called innocent but he wasn't, there was something in the way Nevin said it that made him sound envious as if John had something rare and valuable.

"Let me help," Nevin pleaded.

John nodded. "Sure, can't make it worse anyway."

The pair walked up the corridor side by side. John moved briskly though his head was turned to the clinically clean, tiled floor and he had an expression of disinterest. Nevin almost seemed to skip down the hall, grinning with each bouncy step as if they were going to meet Willy Wonka in his chocolate factory. John couldn't understand the agent's happiness and wrote him off as the eccentric he resembled, wondering if he'd simply been mentally damaged from dealing with too many demons. It was like being shell-shocked or suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from warfare only it was worse because there weren't many psychiatrists who you could go and talk to about devils and monsters. It was war really, just like Nevin said, and the agents were soldiers, eternally fighting against the darkness and the shadows in it.

John swallowed hard as they neared Manning's office, ill liking how grim his thoughts had turned. He stopped outside the glass and wooden door and knocked it.

"Who is it?" Manning called out waspishly.

"Agent Myers," John answered coolly.

There was a curse that sounded like an irate Michael van Rossum and some hasty muttering before Manning snapped, "come in!"

John entered and was closely followed by the still plucky and smiling Nevin.

"So you have the balls to show your face then," Michael growled at him. The tall blonde had a swollen nose that was gradually turning purple and had dried bloodstains at the nostrils. His grey eyes blazed with hate as he rose from his seat and pushed back his shoulders as if attempting to intimidate John with his presence. "And where is your sister? I don't recall her being discharged."

John looked annoyed at that but before he could snap a retort Nevin intervened. The blonde sidestepped John, putting the dark haired agent half behind him as he answered briskly in a smooth voice. "I think we can all agree Dr. Ainsley's actions were despicable, unnecessarily violent and traumatic for Miss Myers and that we can understand why she might be too traumatised to consider the Bureau a place of safety anymore. Given what she suffered I'm sure she is merely taking time to heal."

"She's a liability Agent Cochrane," Michael snapped, "she summons the dead but she has little to no control over it and has previously brought forth zombies and skeletons without warning and in the public eye!"

"Well she's young and probably lacks training," Nevin sympathised, "necromancers aren't too common these days. Offering her violence and imprisonment isn't going to make it better surely."

"She needs detained," Michael snarled as he clenched his fists slightly. He was itching to punch Myers but he didn't dare, not without solid proof that Myers had hit him first. "She was unstable to begin with, the trauma the doctor caused her has probably only made her worse."

"Was that the plan?" John snapped angrily as he glared up at the blond. "Get the doctor to push her over the edge to give you an excuse to say she was unhinged and imprison her?"

"Don't be daft," Michael scorned him quickly, "I would never condone violence on agents and I don't need a mad doctor to help me lock away a threat to society!"

"She's not!" John protested.

"Mr van Rossum," Nevin interrupted, "surely we're forgetting the main issue at hand. The rider of the Apocalypse who brings violence and war is on his way, a threat far greater than any potential threat Miss Myers might possess. If she had ill desires towards the agency or society she would have carried them out by now, she wouldn't have willingly come to the agency or made an effort to help Hellboy and the others. Her talents could be very useful to us now."

"Or they could hinder us," Michael growled out. His voice was quieter now and the fire in his gaze had simmered down suggesting that he was considering what Nevin said despite his words.

"I'll take responsibility," Nevin offered as he clapped his right hand across his chest earnestly. "War isn't the only horseman out there, there are three others and we don't know if or when they have been released. We need all the help we can get. I was sent up here to spearhead the mission against War, the demons you've faced herald his coming, he's close and we don't know how long we have left. So let me do my job and start coming up with a retaliation. Any consequences, I'll take full blame."

Michael scowled at him and pushed one finger into his chest just above where Nevin's hand rested. "Alright Agent Cochrane, any fuck ups caused by the Myers sibilings or the others and they're on you but don't, for any second, forget your place. You're not in charge here, I am and you do this with my permission, I change my mind and you and everybody else is just going to have to deal with that."

Nevin smiled back at Michael disarmingly and nodded convincingly. "No problem sir."

Michael felt another urge to punch someone but this time he didn't care if it was Nevin or John, both were equally annoying to him. He knew he'd let the business with Embry get the better of him and Nevin was right, there was something much more important to focus on and deal with. If this War business was sorted tactfully and quickly it'd be a big promotion for him but if not then his ass was toast, never mind the fate of the world.

"Both of you get out of my sight," he snapped as he dropped his hand from Nevin. "And should your sister decide to reappear Myers I assure you she isn't going to be detained here by a mad doctor or anyone else. She is still an agent, flimsy though her loyalty is, not a prisoner."

John scowled, nodding only when Nevin elbowed him sharply.

"See you soon sir," Nevin remarked cheerfully before gripping John by his right arm and guiding him out of the office.

Once they were back in the corridor and a suitable distance away Nevin let out a low whistle. "Well that was tense," he joked. "Could've went worse though, don't you think?"

John looked at the blond and nodded. "Thanks," he said sincerely. He was a little in shock, trying to digest that not only had he not been fired but that Michael wasn't pushing the issue of Embry. "Um I'll have to tell Embry the news," he realised, "and get her clothes," he added quickly, remembering one of the other reasons he had come here.

"Can I help with any of that?" Nevin offered. Seeing John's defensive look he stopped walking and gave his own pleading stare. "Have I not proved I'm on your side?" he quipped. "I only want to help her and the rest of you," he said reassuringly.

John sighed and rubbed the back of his neck uneasily with his right hand. He hadn't even realised just how stiff and tense he was until now. "Embry's on edge, more so than usual," he confessed awkwardly, "she might not forgive me if I brought you round." Seeing Nevin's wounded look he added hastily, "let me give her a ring, talk to her over the phone and give her an update and then I'll ask her if its okay."

"We could meet somewhere," Nevin suggested, "get that cup of coffee?"

John looked quizzical at this, unsure if Nevin was including him in this scenario or still pushing for a coffee date with Embry alone. "Right," he muttered. He started walking again, heading for Hellboy and Liz's quarters, and Embry's very brief quarters.

As John walked he tugged out his phone and dialled Clay's mobile, preparing to give Embry a summary of the latest bizarre events in the Bureau. Clay answered on the third ring. "Hey Myers," he greeted calmly.

"Hey Clay," John greeted. Curious, he asked, "what do you call Embry when she rings you?"

There was a brief pause before Clay answered in an unimpressed tone, "and when does she ring me?"

"But if she did ring you, would she be Myers?" John pried.

"What?" Clay retorted in an irritated tone. "Maybe, I don't know," he grumbled, "she doesn't ring me. Did you call me just for this?"

"No," John retorted, "I was calling to speak with Embry actually, can you put her on?"

There was another pause. "She's asleep," Clay said finally.

"Why did you take so long to say that?" John queried suspiciously.

"Because you asking about what I call her makes me feel a little uncomfortable," came the defensive reply, "and I'm wary of what you might ask me when I tell you she's asleep, and I got no interest in waking her."

"Is she in your bed?" John blurted out.

"For God's sake Myers," Clay scorned tiredly, "I have a spare bed, which you know, and no, she's on the couch."

"Alright, alright," John said quickly. "I'm going to grab her clothes and then I'll be back with you. I met with van Rossum, it wasn't so bad." He glanced at Nevin. "Agent Cochrane helped, he wants to see Embry but I'd rather ask her if that's okay first."

"Uh huh. So you're not fired then?"

"No."

"Is he aware you punched him?"

"Not exactly."

"And what about your sister? Did he ask about her?" Clay pressed for information.

"Yes," John confessed, "but he says no one's going to imprison her, that she's still an agent."

"You expecting her to go back then?" Clay queried, the defensive tone back.

"No," John retorted, "I mean I guess not. She can stay with you tonight, right?"

"So long as you and Red keep the perverted implications to yourselves then sure."

"Hey Blue told us what you were thinking," John reminded him hotly.

"I'm gonna hang up now," Clay retorted calmly, "see you in a bit and don't bring the psychic."

The line went dead as John and Nevin reached the quarters.

John paused outside Hellboy and Liz's room and raised his hand to knock the door. He paused hearing some amorous noises from within, gasps of pleasure and a few excited squeals that had him suddenly blushing and turning away in a hurry. He felt a prickle of envy as he moved away. He couldn't even recall the last time he'd been intimate with someone. It wasn't just the sex he missed either, it was the whole dating experience, having someone to share things with, to talk to and go out with.

John shrugged off his self-pity and stepped into his sister's recently abandoned and barely inhabited room.


End file.
